A total 1 293 people are still housed in quarantine centers across the country, signifying a huge reduction the figures recorded in the previous weeks.
By Michael Gwarisa
In media brief, Information, publicity and broadcasting services minister, Minister Monica Mutsvangwa said in as much as the recoveries were promising, danger was still lurking and people needed to be vigilant.
Consequentially, our statistics have changed as we implement these new protocols. Recoveries have risen from 1 998 to 4 442 for the period between 14 August to 19 August 2020 largely due to the changes in the determination of the serostatus – the state of either having or not having detectable antibodies of COVID19 in patients.
“Resultantly, active cases have also dropped to 1 051. There are presently 1 293 persons in quarantine facilities, which marks a significant reduction from the figures reported in previous weeks. This again follows the WHO recommendation that the quarantine period be reduced from 21 to 14 days,” said Minister Mutsvangwa.
She added that while the figures of local transmission remain worrisome and continue to rise, the National Taskforce informs that infection, prevention and control, capacity building nationwide continues. Additionally, community awareness programmes are gathering momentum.
“The training of trainers is underway in all 8 rural and two metropolitan Provinces. Training of village and community health workers is also underway in all districts. Village Health Workers are vital to the country’s health delivery system as they interface with communities on a day to day basis.
“In the current COVID19 context, their role has expanded beyond engaging communities in prevention and protective measures, to include detection and responses in containing the pandemic. To this end, their current training links them with local health facility staff and rapid response teams.”
She also said that COVID19 was a novel virus and each day we are learning new information about it and how to combat it.
“The National Taskforce today noted the changes in the World Health Organization’s protocols on COVID19. The new protocols include the revision of the definitions of suspected and probable cases to take into account the increased knowledge on the clinical spectrum of COVID19 signs and symptoms and updated approaches to surveillance.”
