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Munyaradzi Musiiwa, Midlands Correspondent
FIVE suspected Covid-19 cases from Masvingo of people who had travelled to high risk countries in Europe have tested negative, Masvingo Provincial Medical Director Dr Amadeus Shamhu confirmed yesterday.
Dr Shamhu said there were five people who had been quarantined after travelling to Europe and started exhibiting symptoms associated with coronavirus.
He said the provincial rapid response team sent samples to Harare for testing and the five were cleared.
“We had five suspected cases of Covid-19 in the province. These people had travelled to Europe. When they returned home, they started showing peculiar symptoms and our rapid response team was closely monitoring them,” he said.
“We then tested them for Covid-19 and sent their samples to Harare. Fortunately, all the cases were negative and as a province we have not yet recorded a confirmed Covid-19 case.”
Dr Shamhu said Masvingo remains at risk considering that it was along the Beitbridge-Chirundu Highway which is one of the busiest roads in Southern Africa.
“The challenge that we have are people who had travelled to South Africa. We have no mechanism to really track these people.
“Most people in the province travel to South Africa and geographically we are close to South Africa and we are along the highway.
“However, we are yet to record a case in the province. All our suspected cases completed their 21-day isolation and we have not yet heard reports of any of them showing symptoms,” he said.
Dr Shamhu said the rapid response team will also look into other cases from Chingwizi resettlement in Mwenezi where more than 20 people have complained of severe headaches and fever.
“The responsible district (Mwenezi) is yet to inform us of the new development but we will get in touch with them to assess the situation,” he said.
A settler from Chingwizi, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said people are suspecting that it could be malaria.
The settler said the affected people have been taken to Triangle Hospital for treatment.
“We have 24 people so far who are complaining of severe headaches and fever. We suspect it is malaria. Our local clinic has referred all the cases to Triangle.
They are not coughing so we do not think it could be coronavirus although most people here are living in fear. My son and his wife have also been taken to hospital because they have severe headache and fever. We are waiting for the results,” said the settler.
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