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The only surprise in the extension of the Level Two lockdown by President Mnangagwa on Tuesday was that he went fairly easy on the extensions to the lockdown, although he stressed that the existing advice, rules and regulations had to be followed far more strictly since they work and will allow Zimbabweans to defeat Covid-19.
As he noted, there has been a major surge in infections in the past fortnight and a bit, the worst so far, and although the symptoms in this surge are fairly mild for most cases there was concern that hospital care facilities could be overwhelmed.
In fact, the latest statistics show that by Monday the number of hospitalised cases was starting to rise from the middle 200s that had been the case so far during this surge reaching 355, and more worrying the number of Covid-19 patients needing intensive care had suddenly jumped from the one that had been regularly appearing in the figures to 12.
The dangers are there and the degree of complacency seen in so many circles by so many appear to be totally unjustified.
While the number of daily new infections seems to have roughly stabilised over the past few days, with the usual weekend dip in figures reflecting the lower number going for routine testing rather than because they are sick. But with 5 678 new confirmed cases on Tuesday, the second highest on record after the 6 181 seen on Friday last week, it is stabilising at a very high level.
The seven day rolling average, which takes into account sudden daily surges and dips, is rising inexorably if more slowly and is now at 4 580. With 42 666 active cases, that is the number of known people sick with Covid-19, we now have just over 24 percent, almost a quarter, of all the 177 690 confirmed infections seen since the first Covid-19 infection early last year on the sick list.
The death rate is still very low, but we are seeing the number of daily deaths reaching six, as was seen on Tuesday and a couple of times last week. The seven-day rolling average has crept up to four, the highest seen since the end of September, and while still incredibly low compared to the infection rate is a sign that we all need to be very careful, especially when coupled with the sudden jump of patients in intensive care.
President Mnangagwa continued to press for everyone to line up for their vaccinations. He does this several times a week and takes almost every opportunity to encourage people to line up. He has ensured his finance people are buying vaccines; he has ensured that the Health and Child Care Ministry have the staff and support to dispense the vaccines; he insisted from the very beginning of the vaccination drive that vaccinations must be free. He has ruled that those engaging in social mixing with strangers, in bars, nightclubs, restaurants and sports events, must be fully vaccinated.
Unlike most African countries Zimbabwe’s vaccination programme is not hampered or delayed by lack of vaccines or poor management of the vaccination programme. In fact supplies and the necessary teams are so good that the President personally gave his approval for third jabs to boost immunity and medical teams are already able to handle the most critical and early-vaccinated groups, the frontline health staff, the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions.
The President and the Government have basically done all they can do to push the vaccination programme, but people need to respond. At the moment the vaccination rate is chugging along at a little under 200 000 jabs a week, about a fifth of what the Health Ministry showed it could handle at the height of the third wave.
Even with new varieties, existing vaccines offer some protection and one reason for the lower degree of severity in the present Omicron fuelled spike must be the fact that even if a vaccine does not block infection it can make the symptoms far less severe for many, and there is a difference between sitting at home feeling vaguely ill and fighting for your life in intensive care.
Where President Mnangagwa grew more serious in his Tuesday statement, was his insistence that people follow the measures already in force, if not heavily enforced. He wants everyone in a bus or car, regardless of whether these are legal Zupco or other licensed transport or whether they are pirate kombis or mushikashika to be wearing a mask.
This must be obvious to even the most complacent and easy going person. Commuting is easily the most likely time when people are sitting crowded together and it would seem just common sense to not only be properly masked yourself but also to press for the people next to you and behind you to be masked. There has been greater willingness to wear masks on buses, with women leading the way, but there are still passengers wearing masks around the necks or with their noses exposed and conductors and even mushikashika drivers need to use their authority to get everyone to mask up.
He is protecting more Government workers by having more working from home where this is possible, something that the privte sector needs to think more seriously about, and now wants hotels to serve meals in guest rooms rather than dining rooms to minimise risks.
We all know what we are supposed to do. We have been living with Covid-19 for almost two years. Masking, social distancing, good hygiene with sanitising being very convenient, and being careful about socialising work to sharply reduce risk. We all know that and by now should be following the procedures automatically. Wearing a mask should be as automatic as tying your shoe laces.
Yet the vaccination rates, which it must again be stressed are driven in Zimbabwe by individual enthusiasm rather than shortages, tend to show that a lot of people are not being as serious as they should be and that spills over into the masking and other measures.
Even the 9pm curfew, enforced briefly by police, is now breached by ever more people, since there simply cannot be that many essential workers on the roads at midnight as we now see. But in any case enforcement of any measure tends to miss a lot of people and even when it is done people behave for a few minutes, pulling up their masks as they walk pass a cop for example.
The President’s approach, passing on the advice of our top medical advisors backed by international expertise and making sure that everything people need is there and waiting, seems to be sensible. But it does require people to respond, follow the simple rules that can slash your risk and line up for your jabs.
Online Reporter