Be part of the Covid-19 solution

By Tadiwa Nyatanga

Zimbabwe has been battling Covid-19 since March last year. It has been over a year of struggling to contain the pandemic. An upward trend of new cases of the disease being recorded every day has become the norm. As a country, we have gotten to a point where we have recorded more than 5 000 new cases in two days and more than 100 deaths in one day. All the provinces in the country have so far recorded more than 150 cases in just one day. People are dying. Are you doing your best to protect your life and other people’s lives?

As a country, we had some stability between February and May 2021 because of the prevention measures that government had put in place. Public health expert and administrator of the Covid-19 Zimbabwe Facebok page Grant Murewanhema says that much as the spread of Covid-19 is multi-factorial, the largest contributing factor is human movement.

“People began to relax and became  complacent. They started moving freely and forgetting the Covid-19 prevention protocols,” he said.

Murewanhema stated that this, coupled with the relaxation of lockdown measures, which saw the easing of city-to-city travelling and inward migration of visitors and returning residents, with some coming from places with high rates of Covid-19, led to a rise in new cases in the country. However, the beginning of June 2021 marked the onset of winter and saw a sharper rise in the number of new cases and deaths. Winter time is characterised by flu. Beginning of May 2021 we had about 38 000 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Zimbabwe and as of July 14, 2021, we had more than 78 000 cases. This is more than double the May 2021 statistics.

Zimbabwe, like most countries, has experienced three waves of the pandemic.  Most new infections have been recorded in this third wave. Notably, the spread is very different from what occurred in the first and second waves where the concentration of the cases was mainly in urban areas, particularly Harare and Bulawayo accounting for about 60% of the cases. There now is penetration of the disease into areas that were previously not affected by the pandemic in the previous waves, such as Mashonaland West province, which is the second highest in terms of new infections, after Harare Metropolitan province. The rising cases in all the 10 provinces is a clear sign of widespread community transmission.

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Murewanhema said that the Delta and Alpha variants spread easily and fast and have a higher reproduction rate. Both variants have the potential to infect a huge proportion of the population in a short space of time. He, however, advised people not to focus on the differences of the variants.

“Prevention strategies for all the variants are basically the same as the ones we used at the beginning of the pandemic. These strategies are known to break the chains of transmission of whichever variant,” said Murewanhema.

The prevention strategies are:

• Correct wearing of face mask, that is, covering the mouth and the nose. The virus is airborne therefore wear your mask each time you step out of your home.
• Cover your nose when you sneeze. Previously, a sneeze would affect three to six people, but the new variants infect about 18-20 people.
• Social distancing of 11/2 to 2m apart from the next person.
• Wash your hands thoroughly under running water after leaving the toilet, before eating and after handling items and surfaces. If you can, also use sanitisers with at least 70% alcohol content.
• Isolating from confirmed cases.
• Quarantining of contacts of confirmed cases appropriately.
• Frequent sanitisation of frequently touched surfaces and restrooms.
• Funerals are super spreaders of Covid-19. Avoid them. You can support the bereaved financially and emotionally without going to the funeral.
• Open windows in homes, buses, or private cars to allow air to circulate so that the virus is not concentrated in the room or vehicle. This also helps in the prevention and management of TB. The temperatures are generally low these days, but it is necessary to open windows.
• Avoiding unnecessary travel.

It is important to clarify who is termed a “covid-19 contact”:

A contact is a person who experienced any one of the following exposures during the two days before and up to 14 days after the onset of symptoms of a probable or confirmed (index) case:

lFace-to-face contact with a probable or confirmed case within one metre and for more than 15 minutes.

lDirect physical contact with a probable or confirmed case.

lDirect care for a patient with probable or confirmed Covid-19 disease without using proper personal protective equipment.

National Aids Council CEO Bernard Madzima highlighted that people must continue to take preventive measures against HIV.

“Yes, Covid-19 is raging, but we must remember that HIV is still among us. People need to prevent new infections by abstaining, sticking to one faithful partner or using condoms correctly.  Those that are pregnant must register for antenatal care within 12 weeks of pregnancy so as to protect the baby against HIV and those on anti-retroviral treatment must take their medicines as prescribed,” he said.