321 Covid-19 burials in Gweru last year

Patrick Chitumba, Midlands Bureau Chief
GWERU City Council (GCC) last year supervised the burial of 321 people who succumbed to Covid-19 in its cemeteries as the pandemic took its toll on the local authority.

Addressing GCC councillors, management, stakeholders and the media while giving the city’s 2021 report, acting mayor Councillor Cleopas Shiri said of the 321 burials, 237 were of those who died locally, while 84 burials were of repatriated bodies.

“We supervised 237 local and 84 international Covid-19 positive burials as a means to ensure that the pandemic did not spread in the city. Council managed to cope with the high demand for burial space during the Covid-19 pandemic,” he said.

Clr Shiri said council partnered the Gweru Hindu Society in the renovation of the Mtapa Crematorium.

“We hope the service will be available in the near future,” he said.

Clr Shiri said the city’s health department managed to do contact tracing for 2 707 of the 3 477 Covid-19 cases.

In a bid to contain the virus, he said council fumigated 2 737 homes, offices and other affected areas.

“We encourage our residents to continue observing the World Health Organisation and the Ministry of Health and Child Care regulations to mitigate the spread of Covid-19,” said Clr Shiri.

He said by the end of November last year, council had vaccinated 52 324 people against the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Vaccination is ongoing at all our local clinics. Initially, when vaccination started, the response was low, but upon doing extensive campaigns there was a high turnout. So we are encouraging residents to go and get the jabs at any local clinic. The vaccines are available and we need to work together so that we mitigate the spread of the pandemic,” said Clr Shiri.

He said council was also able to improve residents’ access to health services.

“The local authority had an Ivene bar which was not in use so we refurbished it and relocated the clinic. This was to avoid overcrowding at the old clinic.

We also managed to renovate a club house to a satellite clinic at Pfende, which resulted in improved health facilities for residents,” said Clr Shiri.