By Farirai Machivenyika
Thirty-four of the 73 returning residents in quarantine at the Zimbabwe Institute of Public Administration and Management (ZIPAM) in Darwendale were allowed home on Saturday.
Of the 34 discharged, seven had completed the mandatory 21 days in quarantine while the remaining 27 had completed 14 days and will spend the other seven days isolated in their own homes.
In a briefing, yesterday for the Ad-hoc Inter-Ministerial Taskforce on Covid-19, Information, Publicity, and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa said health officers in the provinces would follow up the 27.
The remaining 39 returnees at ZIPAM would be screened and released once they had met the laid-down requirements, she said.
Giving details of other groups under quarantine she said: “Today five returning residents from Mozambique were quarantined at Rowa Training Centre in Mutare Rural, and in Victoria Falls, at Mosi-Oa-Tunya High School, 45 returnees were yesterday placed under quarantine.”
She said the identification of isolation centres across the country’s administrative districts had been completed and work was at various stages to ensure that the medical facilities are ready to receive and handle severe and critical cases when the need arose.
Minister Mutsvangwa said training of medical personnel who will manage the facilities was on-going.
She added that with the 2020 tobacco marketing season opening on April 29 as announced by the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board, Government was encouraging all stakeholders to follow the laid down guidelines in order to ensure safe and smooth transactions at the auction floors.
Meanwhile, Health and Child Care Minister Dr Obadiah Moyo said Government had intensified efforts to import medicines that could not be produced locally but were needed for the treatment of symptoms.
“With winter fast approaching and taking into cognizance that it creates conditions ideal for more infections, the treatment of Covid-19 symptoms is now central to our war against the virus,” said Dr Moyo.
“Modalities have been put in place for the importation of medications that we cannot locally produce and we expect a consignment in the country soon. Local pharmaceutical companies have also been capacitated and are producing increased supplies of medicines such as paracetamol tablets and syrup, Vitamin C, and multivitamin tablets.”
He said there would be more robust testing in the coming days, especially for frontline health workers. The Herald
