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Lumbidzani Dima, Chronicle Reporter
FOURTEEN people succumbed to Covid-19 and 277 others were hospitalised on Christmas Day across the country.
Zimbabwe had by last Saturday recorded 203 746 confirmed Covid-19 cases, including 159 974 recoveries and 4 885 deaths.
On Christmas Day, seven people died in Harare, two in Bulawayo, three in Manicaland, one in Masvingo and one in Matabeleland North.
Last Thursday, Zimbabwe recorded 27 deaths and the spike in new infections and deaths is attributed to the new Covid-19 variant Omicron first detected in neighbouring South Africa and Botswana.
The highly mutated variant has been described as a variant of concern by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
In an interview, the National Covid-19 co-ordinator Dr Agnes Mahomva said Covid-19 is still a threat and the rise in the number of deaths should be a warning to people to strictly adhere to Covid-19 preventative measures.
“The fourth wave is with us and this means we are not out of the woods yet. The spike in the number of new cases witnessed on Thursday is warning that we must remain vigilant especially during this festive season when we all want to celebrate,” said Dr Mahomva.
She said despite the rise in the number of deaths, the national fatality rate so far is lower than that of the second wave, Delta variant.
“The encouraging thing is that although we did see a spike in the number of new deaths on Thursday, the national Case Fatality Rate of 2,4 percent is much lower than the 4,2 percent recorded during the second wave,” said Dr Mahomva.
She urged people to get vaccinated and adhere to all prevention measures as they enjoy their festive season.
More than four million people have been vaccinated against Covid-19 and the target is to vaccinate at least 10 million to reach herd immunity.
Online Reporter