daniel chigunwe
Herald Reporter
There has been a surge in Covid-19 infections since Friday last week with the daily Zimbabwean total hitting 712 yesterday, around 20 times the sort of daily infection rates we were seeing last week and the week before.
Infection rates had been drifting down gently and from mid-November to Thursday last week the seven-day rolling average sank from 38 a day to 26 a day while the weekly death rates were round about five. On Thursday last week there were just 27 new infections,
But on Friday the surge in infections recorded by the Ministry of Health and Child Care, although not yet in deaths, started. One Friday there were 62 new cases, on Saturday 115. These sunk to 40 on Sunday, which is fairly usual as clerical officers are not always on duty, before surging to 235 new infections on Monday, 399 on Tuesday and 712 yesterday.
In the week between Thursday last week and yesterday there were 1 590 new infections, compared to just 190 in the previous seven days. Deaths remained low. In the same seven days there were just three deaths recorded compared to five the seven days before. Normally changes in death rates lag any changes in infections as it can take a week or two from the time of infection until a person who is seriously affected is in hospital or dead. Vaccination rates have been stable for most of last week and this week after the surge as a result of the senior schoolchildren. With those now done, the daily vaccination rate is well under 30 000, although Zimbabwe has the stocks of vaccine and the teams. At the height of the third wave in August a daily record of 104 000 jabs was set, more than three times what we are seeing this week.
By yesterday just over 3,8 million Zimbabweans had had a first dose and just over 2,83 million both.
Online Reporter