Government has urged citizens to get vaccinated against COVID-19 amid a rise in new coronavirus infections.
The new coronavirus infections doubled from 809 cases recorded in December 2022 to the current 1 923, with 17 people having succumbed to the disease in January this year.
Chief coordinator for the National Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Office of the President and Cabinet Dr. Agnes Mahomva said, we are observing an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases.
“As Government, our message hasn’t changed, we continue to urge people to get vaccinated as that is the only effective way to safeguard ourselves from this pandemic,” she said.
Mahomva said genomic sequencing is ongoing at the National Microbiology Reference Laboratory, and to date, no new variants have been detected.
She added that government continues to assess and monitor the situation on the ground daily, guided by both local and global data to provide timely and science-driven adjustments to the national response, where necessary.
“Government also strengthened its case management systems by ensuring health facilities have adequate oxygen supplies and the medicines required for supportive care of identified positive cases requiring treatment.
This was mostly motivated by the fact that a lot of returning residents and some visitors were expected to travel back to Zimbabwe in large numbers, with some coming from countries experiencing an increase in the number of daily new cases.
Since the onset of COVID-19 in March 2020, Zimbabwe has recorded 262 129 cases, including 255 181 recoveries and 5 656 deaths, with a recovery rate of 97 percent.
