Chronicle Editor
Robin Muchetu, Senior Reporter
THE Government says the current Covid-19 Case Fatality Rate is at its lowest now, ranging around 2,9 percent compared to previous waves where it went as high as 4,2 percent.
Case Fatality Rate measures the severity of a particular disease by defining the total number of confirmed deaths as a proportion of confirmed cases at a particular time.
According to the Ministry of Health and Child Care Daily Covid-19 updates, Zimbabwe has for the past seven days recorded 51 deaths compared to 24 that was recorded in the previous week.
National Covid-19 Co-ordinator Dr Agnes Mahomva acknowledged the increase in cases but put it into perspective that the cases were not as severe as the previous wave in terms of deaths, severe illness and hospitalisation.
“Generally, I completely agree that the number of new cases have gone up so tremendously, a marked significant increase when we compare the fourth wave and the other waves we had, the first, second and third. But the increase in the number of deaths has not gone up as rapidly as it did when we were in the third and second wave.
“So, when you are looking at our Case Fatality Rate during the second wave, it was probably the highest, around 4,2 percent on average, then it went down slightly in the third wave to around 3,4 percent, we are seeing it hovering now as we speak around 2,9 percent and even less, yesterday (Friday) it was 2,5 percent,” she said.
Dr Mahomva said looking at the total number of deaths compared to the total number of new cases, the Case Fatality Rate is not as high as it was previously and said health experts are hoping that it will remain that way or continue to go down.
She said the total number of deaths reported in this fourth wave per day, are far less than in the second and third wave of the pandemic in Zimbabwe.
“So, when you are looking at when we were at the peak of the second wave when we were having an average of 101 deaths per day, that’s a marked decline as compared to now, with the numbers highlighted.
“However, any death is very important to us. We don’t want any death at all, hence the message to everyone is that we need to remain vigilant and continue adhering to the prevention measures,” she said.
Dr Mahomva said health officials and institutions have now learnt the preventive measures and have a lot of experience from managing the first, second and third waves saying the people should not panic.
Dr Mahomva reiterated that there was nothing else that is new in terms of prevention, other than sticking to what the public already knows works such as hand washing with soap and running water, sanitising, avoiding crowds and large gatherings and wearing face masks properly.
The National Coordinator stressed the need for continued vaccination against Covid-19 which is one of the reasons why the Health Ministry believes Zimbabwe’s Case Fatality Rate is not going up but down. – @NyembeziMu.
Bongani Ndlovu