484 days of the Covid-19 Lockdown, and as of 25th of July 2021, the Ministry of Health and Child Care reported that the cumulative number of Covid-19 cases had increased to 97 894 after 617 new cases all local cases, were recorded. The highest case tally was recorded in Harare 156 cases. The hotspots updates are as follows: Mashonaland West Province – Hurungwe (14), Kariba (8) Sanyathi (22), Mashonaland Central – Bindura (9), Mazowe (13). Mashonaland East-Marondera (16) Murehwa (16). Masvingo Province – Masvingo (25). Midlands Province – Kwekwe (17). Bulawayo Province – Nkulumane (10), Emakhandeni (21) and Northern Suburbs (22), Harare Province (156).
We note that the Hospitalisation rate as of 15:00hrs on the 24th of July 2021 was 753 hospitalised cases: 83 New Admissions, 279 Asymptomatic cases, 398 mild-to-moderate cases, 54 severe cases and 22 cases in Intensive Care Units.
Active cases went down to 28 887. The total number of recoveries went up to 65 913 increasing by 1 285 recoveries. The recovery rate goes up marginally to 67% from 66%. A total of 18 452 people received their 1st doses of vaccine. The cumulative number of the 1st dose vaccinated now stands at 1 447 342. A total of 2 286 recipients received their second dose bringing the cumulative number of 2nd dose recipients to 680 060. The death toll went up to 3 094 after 44 new deaths were recorded.
Critical Emerging Issues
Covid-19 Vaccine Drive
We commend the efforts to secure vaccine availability in Zimbabwe by the procurement and delivery of the 1 million doses of vaccine yesterday which bring the total of received vaccines to 5.5 million doses of the 12 million that Government has paid for fully from China. We commend further the securing of another USD 7.5 million for the acquisition of the vaccines from the AU (African Union) facility, and efforts to support an additional 1.5 million doses from the COVAX facilities. We note Government’s position that it has thus far utilized USD 96 million in the procurement of vaccines and therefore spent the USD 100 million available to support vaccination to cover the 60% nation herd immunity target in our population of 14 million citizens.
- We urge Government to rapidly expedite the expansion of vaccination centres and vaccination drive support elements to ensure adequate systems to administer vaccines to citizens without creating Covid-19 super spreaders at vaccination centres.
- We call upon Government to fully account for the expenditure of funds to supporting the vaccination drive and the Covid-19 pandemic directly and specifically.
- We call upon Parliament of Zimbabwe to fully uptake this mandate and secure accountability for the pandemic management in Zimbabwe
Outstanding issues
Disregard for Covid-19 Restrictions
We highlight the results of the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency regarding the disregard of Covid-19 restrictions. We raise the highlights as we are in the third wave of Covid-19 driven by the highly transmissible Delta variant of Covid-19. We note with alarm that only 58% of Zimbabweans are avoiding social gatherings down from 91% recorded in 2020. This is a significant drop of adherence to Covid regulations in the direst period Zimbabwe is currently experiencing. We highlight the particular finding as it speaks directly to the socio-economic restrictions aimed at reducing the pace of transmission and flattening the curve.
We highlight the particular results of the survey and we note with concern the continued increase in the Covid-19 new cases rate and the potential of asymptomatic cases driving infections in a context of a largely unvaccinated public.
- We call for increased enforcement of the Covid-19 regulations in regard to social gatherings.
- We continue to call for the strict implementation of public health safety protocols in the public spaces.
- We urge citizens to observe physical distancing and proper use of masks, as they meet and interact in public places and to limit unnecessary gatherings.
- We urge businesses to continuously fumigate premises and workplaces for the safety of workers and patrons.
Source: Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe (WCoZ)
