Suburban
Mt Pleasant, Borrowdale and the central business district recorded the highest cases of COVID-19 between December last year and March this year, according to a City of Harare report.
Diana Nherera Suburban Reporter
The report presented to stakeholders on Wednesday this week also cited Waterfalls in Harare South and Chitungwiza as having recorded the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the period under review.
Acting Harare Mayor Musarurwa Stewart Mutizwa presented the report at a stakeholders meeting the municipality held on Wednesday this week to update its stakeholders on the state of the city in terms of service delivery.
The report noted that the highest COVID-19 cases were recorded in Borrowdale, Mt Pleasant, the central business district, Waterfalls and Chitungwiza from December last year to March 11 this year.
In the report, the City Health Department notes that the challenges it faced last year which included the mass exodus of nurses for greener pastures.
There are 242 vacancies for nurses and the city says it is losing nurses on a weekly basis who are resigning to join non-governmental organisations among other alternative employers offering salaries in foreign currency.
The city is also losing other essential health staff such as pharmacists and health promoters and the department recommends better remuneration.
The health services report noted that as of 20 May this year, 29 new COVID-19 cases were recorded over a seven-day period and three deaths bringing a cumulative figure 11 902 confirmed cases, 915 deaths and 10 943 recoveries in Harare.
“Zimbabwe now has recorded 38 086 cases, 35 123 recoveries and 1 557 deaths as at 20 May 2021,” reads the report.
The stakeholders’ meeting was attended by residents and residents’ associations among other people.
Harare North Member of Parliament Mr Allan Markham recently urged residents to get vaccinated against Covid-19 and do their part in ensuring the country reaches herd immunity.
He told residents at a service delivery meeting that people were not taking vaccination seriously yet Zimbabwe has health challenges which cannot cope with a major outbreak of a pandemic such as the coronavirus.
To reach herd immunity, Zimbabwe must get 11 million of its 16 million people vaccinated but some people were not forthcoming in taking the vaccination because of some misconceptions about vaccines being spread around on social media platforms.
Despite the misconceptions being peddled, the meeting heard that the Chinese-made Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines were safe and people should not pay attention to the non-scientific claims of the effects of the vaccines being spread around.
“Guys if you are not getting vaccinated for whatever reason, it’s not about you it’s about everyone. I know there is everything (stories about the vaccines). I have heard some phenomenal stories about what the vaccine does, from making you fluent in Chinese in three minutes and making everything shrink below the belt. Guys if that’s what was going to be done, the Chinese would just put the stuff in KFC (the fast food) that we all eat. So that is serious we got a disaster in the health sector in the country.
“Look I am fully vaccinated and I have had COVID. My wife is fully vaccinated and I encourage it. I see the Sinopharm vaccine was rushed through WHO in the last of couple of days and so it won’t make you go whatever everyone says,” Harare North MP Mr Allan Markham told the meeting.
He said the crisis in the health sector should jolt people to get vaccinated because the country’s health system will not be able to cope with a pandemic of huge proportions.
In Harare some council clinics have been closed following the resignation of nurses who left for better salaries and working conditions. Affected clinics in the northern suburbs include those in Borrowdale, Highlands and Mt Pleasant which have all been closed except for one afternoon per week.
Borrowdale Clinic was recently repaired by residents who funded the renovations to the tune of US$18 500 through donations excluding labour but the residents are not able to benefit from the facility.
“Borrowdale Clinic is one of the best run (council clinics) in Harare whether it’s me or the domestic (worker), we all go there. Borrowdale still hands out ARVs, they still hand out blood pressure (checks). So I am saying the health (system) will not react to a national pandemic. We are 16 million, 11 million for herd immunity but we are nowhere near that,” Mr Markham said.
