FATIGUE leading to complacency in epidemics and pandemics is well described. Humans are social beings and created with an intrinsic desire to mingle, interact and work. However, certain times really call for an audit of our actions and behaviour.
By Dr Grant Murewanhema
Global statistics indicate that SARS-CoV-2 is now spreading like veldfire in some continents. Over 4 million people were confirmed to be SARS-CoV-2 positive in the week ending 29 November 2020, and in the same week over 69 000 fatalities were reported. It is extremely naive to think that a disease that has claimed 1.4 million lives in a space of less than 12 months is a hoax.
Our neighbouring South Africa has started experiencing a terrible second wave as well, with increases in the daily confirmed cases and hospital admissions. Especially as we go into the festive season, we have to carefully and critically watch our steps. Its better to stay at home during the festive season than to have a January full of bad news.
Our daily situation reports indicate an increasing number of new infections over the past week, and the majority of these cases are locally-acquired.
Its not rocket science to know that Zimbabwe in general is under-testing because of limited capacity, and the reported numbers are a tip of the iceberg; in reality there could be more widespread community transmissions which are undetected. Once people are tested in large numbers in schools and other amenities huge cluster of infections are discovered.
181 more people tested positive in the past 24 hours, and this is the largest number reported in a day over the past 2-3 months. This is out of 1294 tests, with a positivity rate of 14%. 178 of these were detected among local residents. Harare Province, after a period of relative quiescence, also reported a number of cases today. Harare residents have been largely complacent, attending funerals and other gatherings in large numbers without infection prevention and control measures.
Sadly Bulawayo continues to report fatalities, with 2 more deaths in the past 24 hours, and Manicaland also reported a death. Lets rethink our behaviour and make a few sacrifices for the sake of breaking the chains of transmission for this virus.
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