By having one of the lowest per capita confirmed covid-19 cases and deaths in the world, this Zanu PF government is already boasting about it as proof its competence in containing the virus. This is all very well if it is true; there is growing evidence that Zimbabwe’s corona virus situation is far worse than the official report suggest.
“As at 14 August 2020, Zimbabwe had 5 072 confirmed cases, (up by 82 new cases) including 1 998 recoveries and 128 deaths,” stated the Ministry of Health and Child Care daily update report.
Compare this with a detailed report in the New Zimbabwe on the same day, 14 August 2020.
“80 people that work at Munhumutapa Building, the building that houses president Mnangagwa’s offices reportedly tested positive for COVID-19,” reported New Zimbabwe.
“A source privy to the developments told the publication that, Public Service Commission even sent 85% of its staffers on quarantine after the novel coronavirus hit the government department’s offices in Harare.
“The matter came to light in a memo seen by the publication from PSC Secretary Ambassador Jonathan Wutawunashe to other staff members which reads in part:
“In view of the continued increase in the number of COVID-19 cases within the civil service, the Commission has been left without a choice but to further reduce the number of essential staff. Reduce the number of essential service staff to 15% of the current members coming to work. Reduce the number of people who use public transport since local community transmission is on the increase PSC reportedly also sent memos to ministerial heads advising them to reduce the number of workers in their offices and introduce remote working.”
So 80 workers in one government building, Munhumutapa Building, alone had tested covid-19 positive; how is it then possible that the whole country had only 82 covid-19 new cases?
The other day 26 workers in Zanu PF HQ tested positive of covid-19. This suggests that covid-19 tests are being ramped up in those areas where Zanu PF ruling elite frequent to reduce the chances of the elite getting the virus.
The covid-19 positive cases from Munhumutapa Building, Zanu PF HQ, etc. are not being included to the national total but at least the tests are being done and those with the virus sent into isolation. There is nothing to suggest that the regime is doing any tracing and tracking of the Munhumutapa Building and Zanu PF HQ covid-19 positive workers, the initial tests were to protest the chefs and the rest are not important.
Indeed, the most effective way Zanu PF has managed to keep the country’s corona virus figures down is by conducting very few tests. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has been calling on all governs to “Test, trace and track!” Zimbabwe has conducted one of the lowest per capita covid-19 tests in the world!
Whilst SA had done 3 million covid-19 tests by the end of July 2020. Zimbabwe with 1/4 the population of SA should have done 750 000 tests in the same period. Zimbabwe had done only 145 000 tests or 20%.
SA has 579 000 confirmed confirmed cases and , it is highly probable that Zimbabwe has 144 000 (1/4 that of SA) cases instead of the official figure of 5 000!
So, for every one covid-19 case send into isolation there were as many as 30 others with the virus who continue to roam freely in the community spreading the virus all because the regime ignore WHO’s advice, common sense really, to test aggressively.
At the outbreak of the corona virus pandemic Zimbabwe’s economy was already in total meltdown and its health care service had long all but collapsed. Zanu PF has not had any discernible strategy to stop the virus outbreak in the country and, once the virus was within the border, to contain it.
By failing to test aggressively and thus failing to implement some of the common sense precautions such as isolation, Zimbabwe has allowed corona virus to spread far and wide.
Zimbabwe’s corona virus figures should therefore be 1/4 those of SA, at the very best. Zimbabwe’s official covid-19 figures are certainly off the mark, it is nonsense to report of 82 new cases country wide when one government office has just reported 80 cases. The official figures are 30 times below the expected and by the time the pandemic finally blows over the difference will probably be tens if not hundreds of thousands of times below the real figures.
There is no doubt that Zanu PF is rigging the corona virus statistics. If the nation was to carry out thorough investigation into Zimbabwe’s corona virus story the report will uncover “numerous errors, lack of transparency, traceability and verifiability”; just as the EU 2018 Election Mission said the election!
The purpose of rigging the July 2018 elections was to keep Zanu PF in power. The purpose of rigging the corona virus figures is to bury, metaphorically and literally too, Zanu PF’s blundering incompetence in the handling of the pandemic. In both cases it is the ordinary Zimbabweans who have paid dearly in lost treasure and human suffering for the bad governance and in hundreds of thousands of human lives for corona virus.
Corona virus has also destroyed the economy not just of Zimbabwe but the world over. The economic recovery will be hard work for all but near impossible for a country like Zimbabwe with a corrupt and incompetent government like Zanu PF. Rigging economic recover has proved a bridge too far for Mnangagwa and company. Unless the people finally get their act together and implement the democratic reforms necessary to stop the curse of rigged elections there is a lot more weeping gnashing of teeth and death ahead for Zimbabwe.
14 comments:
@ Dr Mavaza
This is just typical Zanu PF apologist trash! You are wittering about "Hopewell represents the colonial mindset and in his mind a Zimbabwean can never run a country." Why are you not addressing the Drax scandal and its relevances to Zimbabwe and good governance. Everyone knows that Chin'ono is being punished for that story!
PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa will soon dispatch his special envoys to Harare again - to meet with key local stakeholders, including the opposition.
This comes as the government has come under renewed pressure internally and internationally for alleged gross human rights breaches by authorities.
It also comes as analysts have said that the only viable path out of the country's decades-long political and economic crisis is to get President Emmerson Mnangagwa to talk to the opposition.
Insanity is repeating the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
Zimbabwe is in this economic and political mess because of 40 years of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF rule. The nearest the country ever got to ending the Zanu PF dictatorship was during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. Sadly, MDC leaders sold-out and failed to implement even one reform. The two political parties have since reached a political arrangement where Zanu PF retained its dictatorial powers in return for givng away a few gravy train seats.
Zanu PF rigged the July 2018 elections confirming the country's status as a pariah state. All suggestions of a new Zanu PF and MDC GNU is just an excuse to keep Zanu PF in power. The new GNU will not implement an reforms because these parties are not going to reform themselves out of power.
The solution is for the illegitimate Zanu PF regime to step down so the country can appoint a body to completely overhaul the rotten political system. The people of Zimbabwe need help to force Zanu PF to step down and stop holding the nation to ransom. The last thing the people want is to be forced to keep Zanu PF in power, to appease the corrupt and murderous thugs and thus repeat the same foolishness of the last 40 years!
If SA and SADC do not have the guts to stand up to Mnangagwa and Zanu PF then they must step aside and let others do it!
Read my lips - MNANGAGWA AND ZANU PF MUST STEP DOWN! That is not negotiable!
"Government is aware of some hospitals which are turning away patients seeking medical help by demanding Covid-19 test certificates. Some hospitals are also taking advantage of the pandemic to charge exorbitant fees and we are saying that should stop," he said.
Dr Chiwenga said Government will soon demand an explanation from hospitals which have been turning away patients or charging exorbitant fees.
"No one has authority or right to turn away any person seeking help and we will be taking tough measures," he said.
The reason why hospitals and clinics have been turning away covid-19 patients obvious; these institutions have not been given the human and material resources to deal with covid-19 patients given this is a very contagious virus.
It is up to government to make sure all those with covid-19 are correctly tested and kept separate from the rest of the community. Those working with covid-19 patients must be given the right PPE and paid for their work.
What Chiwenga is threatening to do is the knee jerk reaction that will make a bad situation worse! It is not in the nation’s interest to have covid-19 patients mix freely with the rest of the patients and spread the virus to the health workers and other patients alike!
ABOUT four clinics have been closed in the last fortnight in Mashonaland west after members of staff tested positive for Covid-19 amid fears the disease is spreading to rural areas.
Chikonohono clinic in Chinhoyi became the latest clinic to be closed yesterday after Chikangwe in Karoi, Mhondoro-Ngezi clinic and Madzorera clinic in Zvimba.
Chinhoyi council town clerk Maxwell Kaitano notified clients and stakeholders that Chikonohono clinic was closed after one nurse tested positive for Covid-19.
"During the period the clinic will be undergoing disinfection and sanitisation for infection prevention and control of Covid-19 and other infectious diseases, after one of our clinic employees tested Covid-19 positive," Kaitano said.
Zimbabwe has not been testing enough to establish how the corona virus has been spreading in the community.
Whilst SA has conducted 3 million covid-19 tests by end of July, Zimbabwe with 1/4 the population of SA should have done 750 000 tests. The country has only done 145 000 tests or 20%.
Zimbabweans know corona virus is spreading in the country but have no clue how many people have the virus. We are like baboons in the dark with killer leopards in the midst, the baboons know there are killers from the death cries of victims but have no idea where the killers are, how many, where to go, etc.
Zanu PF does not want the truth about corona virus known because it will expose the regime’s blundering incompetence in the handling of the pandemic. The price of operating in the dark is the virus has spread far and wide because the nation has not been taking even the common sense precautions like isolating those with the virus.
Zanu PF has us all caged like baboons and the party have turned off the lights and let in the leopards. Of course, this is intolerable and we are allowing it to happen at our own cost! We are only as helpless as baboons but only because we have elected to be.
FINANCE Ministry secretary George Guvamatanga and his entire family of nine members had to be quarantined after they tested positive for Covid-19.
Although details of how they got infected remain sketchy, Information Ministry secretary Nick Mangwana confirmed Saturday night.
"Perm Sec @GGuvamatanga is one of our #Covid19Zim recovered cases. This virus affected 9 members of his household," Mangwana posted on Twitter.
Of course, no one has a clue how Guvamatanga and his family got the virus because the country has not been testing, tracing and tracking at all. Zimbabwe has done 145 000 tests by end of July when it should done 750 000 tests as compared to the 3 million SA has done.
The only reason government has been testing workers in government offices, Zanu PF party workers, senior government officials and their family is because the ruling elite know by testing and keeping those with the virus away is one sure way of making sure they do not get the virus. They are not extending the same aggressive testing and tracing regime across the board because they do not particularly care if povo get the virus.
Meanwhile, 104 new Covid-19 cases and two deaths were recorded Saturday, the Health Ministry said in its daily Covid-19 update.
All the 104 cases are local transmissions and the two deaths were recorded in Bulawayo Province. This brings the number of Covid-19 active cases to 2 999.
"As at 15 August 2020, Zimbabwe had 5 176 confirmed cases, including 2 047 recoveries and 130 deaths," the ministry said.
In a country that is only doing about 20% of the test it should - these figures are meaningless as trying to make sense of a one square metre picture from one dot! What makes this totally unacceptable is that this is a constrain imposed on the nation by the regime for its own selfish purposes.
Zanu PF knows its blundering incompetence in the handling of the pandemic will be impossible to hide if the true scale of the corona virus in the nation was known. Zanu Pf is falsifying the covid-19 conformed cases and deaths to create the impression the regime has handled the pandemic very well indeed!
Corona virus pandemic is the greatest challenge of our generation and even those countries with vast material and human resources to help them deal with the virus have struggled to cope with the virus. The very fact that Zimbabwe should be doing exceptional well compared to all other neighbours and even developed nation should have set off alarm bells, church bells, ringing.
The fact that Zimbabwe is not testing as much as it should and that the regime is deliberately ignoring many reported cases explains why the official covid-19 figures are so low.
Zimbabwe is in this economic and political mess because the people themselves have done nothing for 40 years to end the curse of bad governance. The corona virus has just increased the price the nation is now paying for bad governance.
How many deaths will it take to force Zimbabweans to open their eyes and demand of the regime why so many people have died of corona virus and yet the regime only admit to a tiny fraction?
If Zimbabweans want a good and competent government to lead them through these difficult corona virus months then we must first end the curse of bad governance!
Kudos to Lesotho authorities for admitting they have a problem, some governments are notorious for sweeping problems under the carpet even if that means the ordinary people suffering and dying. Right now thousands of Zimbabweans have died of corona virus and hundreds of thousands more will die all because the government there will not test for the virus.
Zimbabwe is in this economic and political mess because for the last 40 years, the people of Zimbabwe have turned a blind eye to corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF misrule. There is a heavy price to be paid in having a corrupt and incompetent government when a nation is facing a serious challenge like the corona virus pandemic. The death toll to corona virus is mounting and the regime is burying the evidence! The real big question here is how long can this go on before the people are finally forced to open their eyes!
The death toll from Covid-19 in Zimbabwe reached 132 yesterday with two more deaths, one in Bulawayo and one in Manicaland.
With another 85 confirmed infections, the total of confirmed cases has reached 5 261, although of these 2 092 have recovered with a large extra block of Harare recoveries expected to be in the statistics from tomorrow, according to the Ministry of Health and Child Care.
Harare remains the source for the largest number of infections with 2 035 cases and 71 deaths.
Zimbabwe is in this hell-ono-earth economic and political situation because for the last 40 years the people have turned a blind eye to Zanu PF corruption and tyrannical rule. The party has done as it pleased with tragic economic and social consequences.
From the outbreak of the corona virus it was clear that Zimbabwe was going to be one of the country to be hit hard by the virus given the country’s economy was already in total meltdown and its health care services all but collapsed. And yet Zimbabwe’s confirmed covid-19 cases and deaths per capita is one of the lowest in the world!
There are two reasons why Zimbabwe’s official covid-19 figures are low:
the country is not testing, as of end of July we had done 145 000 tests when we should have done 750 000 tests to keep abreast with SA for example. Only those tested and found to be covid-19 positive are included on the official list and so by not testing one is keeping the official tally low.
Zanu PF is deliberately failing to collect all the data. On Friday 14 August 80 workers in Mnangagwa’s Office Building tested positive of covid-19. Official the whole country had 82, 102 and 85 new cases on Friday, Saturday and Sunday respectively. It is clear the 80 cases at Mnangagwa’s Office were left out!
There have hardly been any reported covid-19 cases and deaths from the country’s rural hospitals and clinics, for example. They have not been given the resources to test and the PPE to handle covid-19 cases and so they are being forced to work of the assumption there are no covid-19 cases. None! Failing to test does not change the reality on the ground - there are covid-19 cases and deaths in the rural areas.
Indeed, by failing to test and burying one’s head in the sand this is only helping the virus spread far and wide because people are not taking even the simple precautions like going into isolation!
Zanu PF is rigging the corona virus pandemic statistics for the purpose of hiding the regime’s blundering incompetence in the handling of the virus. The consequence of this foolish decision is the virus is spreading even more and many, many more people will die as a result. The people of Zimbabwe must wake-up to this tragic reality or they will pay the price - it is their lives at stake here!
The new Minister of Health, Constantino Chiwenga is yet to meet doctors and nurses to address the challenges plaguing the country's public health system.
The Zimbabwe Nurses Association said that there had been no attempt to address workers' demands as yet through formal engagement.
This is the stuff nightmares are made of: we are in the middle of a serious corona virus outbreak, the country’s health cares services is all but totally collapsed there are no nurses and doctors to provide even the most basic care and the buffoon appointed Minister of Health is not even aware we have a serious crisis in our hands!
"Things will never be the same again. We are restructuring and reforming our health delivery system. We want to rebuild the structures from village to referral level. Things will never be the same again, but we must work together," said VP Chiwenga last week.
"We have already identified the problems and we do not want a repeat of what was happening before.”
So what the devil are you waiting for? People are dying out there and bodies are piling up posing a serious health hazard and compounding the problem.
As a nation we have tolerated bad governance for 40 years and now the chickens have come home to roost. The economic meltdown had forced 34% of our people into abject poverty the economic disruption caused by the corona virus will drag the economy into even deeper waters and even more people into abject poverty. Meanwhile corona virus, the grime riper, is killing our people and not even the common sense precautions are been taken to save lives!
More than 72 percent of all Zimbabweans who have been confirmed as infected with Covid-19 are now fully recovered, able to resume work, shop and participate in the limited social mixing during the lockdown.
The huge jump yesterday in the number of recovered patients to 3 848, out of the total of 5 308 confirmed cases, came as delayed figures from Harare finally entered the statistics of the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare.
The city jumped from 76 recoveries to 1 774 once the recoveries in the city over the past few weeks were included. There were only 47 new cases yesterday, but three new deaths, on each from Bulawayo, Mashonaland East and Manicaland, to take the cumulative total to 135.
This is so sad and tragic; here we are celebrating the lie that only 135 Zimbabweans have died of covid-19 and yet we know that thousands of our people are dying of the virus we don’t know of but only because government is stubbornly refusing to test.
We have not been carrying out enough tests already and now it seems the few test have been concentrated on returnees and those found covid-19 positive to bolster the recovery figure.
It is now clear why the Zanu PF government passed the law to punish anyone else who report on the corona virus figures other than the official record. The government did not want the truth told and so we are being fed these Herald lies. By failing to test and thus identify those with the virus the nation is only helping the virus to spread as society is failing to take even the common sense precautions like putting the infected into isolation.
Zanu PF is boasting taking the covid-19 fake news as proof it is handling the pandemic well. The truth is the exact opposite, Zimbabwe’s covid-19 cases and deaths are soaring. Zimbabwe is paying dearly, with human lives, for Zanu PF fake news!
According to the Cabinet report, Government has since approved the introduction of four pillars in the health delivery system and these include pharmaceuticals and biopharmaceuticals product manufacturing; biomedical engineering, targeting the manufacturing of ventilators, hospital beds and other essential equipment; biomedical science and laboratory science, incorporating research on pathogens and the manufacturing of consumables such as reagents and public health strategy and guidelines formulation.
In a media briefing after Tuesday's Cabinet meeting, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa said the revamping of the health system is expected to result in robust medical services.
Zimbabwe is in this hell-on-earth because for the last 40 years the country has been stuck with a corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical regime that has promised the moon on a silver platter, there is absolutely nothing the regime said it could not do, but has only delivered hell on earth. The only reason the party is still in power is because it rigged elections.
The one thing the nation need yesterday is to ramp-up the testing to get a full picture of the corona virus in the country. It is shocking that the buffoon Chiwenga did not have manage to get even this right!
Hundreds of people are dying of corona virus everyday and yet the nation is being told the lie that only 141 people have died since the outbreak of the pandemic! The relatives of these corona virus victims are not following the stipulated protocol in burying the dead and thus putting even more people at risk of catching the virus. This is a real nightmare!
The tragedy of those babies, however, is just one story. There are many more that you won’t have heard about. Of people dying on operating tables; of patients with tumours being turned away because we haven’t been able to carry out elective surgeries for months and then dying after the disease spreads; of preventable conditions that should only require basic treatment becoming life-threatening.
Across the country, health workers are having to turn patients away. I have lost count of the number of patients I have had who are sick but cannot afford even the most basic of treatments. Sometimes you stop and wonder: are all these people being failed by Zimbabwe’s healthcare system now just dying at home?
We are tired of telling patients that you are going to die, tired of patients dying when it could have been prevented. As people who were trained to care, the situation is incredibly distressing. Our morale is incredibly low – the lowest it has ever been – and so many people now just want to leave the country.
We are looking to our government for change, but the truth is they don’t care. The people in power don’t get treated in government hospitals. When they get sick, they go abroad. They even saw the pandemic as little more than a money-making opportunity. We saw this play out in the multi-million-dollar equipment procurement scandal that led to the recent arrest of the Health Minister as well as the vindictive detention of Hopewell Chin’ono, the journalist who uncovered it. The government then appointed Vice-President Constantine Chiwenga – a military man known for making insulting comments about doctors – as the new Health Minster.
This is a great tragedy! What makes this worse is that we have all seen this coming these last 40 years and have all done nothing to end the madness. Nations get the government they deserve, we in Zimbabwe certainly deserve this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship complete with its entourage of equally corrupt and useless opposition parties.
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