Six health care workers die of Covid-19

Patrick Chitumba, Midlands Bureau Chief
OVER 670 health workers have been infected by Covid-19 in Midlands province since March last year, six of them dying as a result.
Provincial Medical Director, Dr Mary Muchekeza said more resources are required to fight the virus.

“While the country is being ravaged by this deadly virus, our province has not been spared either. In fact, the first Zimbabwean case of the highly contagious Delta variant was detected in Kwekwe on May 21,” she said.

This week, President Emmerson Mnangagwa extended, by a further two weeks, the lockdown instituted to curb Covid-19.

Dr Muchekeza said from the first Covid-19 case was recorded in Zimbabwe in March 2020, the province has recorded 9 435 cases and 376 deaths.

She said the province has witnessed an exponential increase in new cases and deaths over the past couple of months of the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Our health workers being in the frontline have not been spared as a total of 677 have been affected or infected and unfortunately six succumbed to the virus and this buttresses the need for more personal protective equipment (PPE) to combat this deadly enemy,” said Dr Muchekeza.

“There is a need for more PPEs for our health workers so that we combat this enemy. We are at war and synergies in resource mobilisation are needed to mitigate against this virus. Resources will continue to be needed for some time to come as scientists have predicted a fourth wave of this virus. We need ambulances for transportation, isolation and treatment facilities, medical supplies and other non-medical supplies for the motivation of our staff members.”