The government has availed ZWL$7 billion towards procurement of medical sundries and allowances for health-workers as part of efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, deputy minister of health and child care Dr John Mangwiro has revealed.
Addressing the media yesterday evening, Dr Mangwiro said the country had entered the emergency mode to arrest the pandemic that has so far claimed over 400 lives from the 17 000 confirmed in the country .
“The government has cumulatively availed ZWL$7 Billion to motivate and employ more health workers, procure testing, PPEs sundries and sanitizers and improve infrastructure,” he said.
Dr Mangwiro added that the government is in the process of rolling out Rapid Antigen testing for symptomatic patients, a move he said will go a long way in decongesting emergency rooms and improving the triaging process.
“The government has also procured 156 000 kits for testing and these are being distributed throughout the country and the ministry is conducting testing in all the provinces. Hospital admissions have been increased, more beds have been made available to cater for severe cases,” he added.
As of 6th of January 2020 the total number of confirmed cases stood at 17 804 COVID-19 cases and of those 1365 were recorded in one day (5th of January 2021).
Dr Mangwiro urged the nation to stay at home saying a decision to leave home should be treated as “A Life-or-death decision”.
