There is growing evidence the third wave of the corona virus outbreak is upon us.
“According to a situation report released by the ministry of health and Child Care, a boarding school in Matabeleland South province recorded 78 Covid-19 cases on Friday,” reported Bulawayo 24.
“Sacred heart Girls high School and Mzingwane high School in Matabeleland South had recorded 106 cases on the previous day.”
Government’s response has been to blame the schools authorities and the public for breaking government orders not to travel during Easter break.
“But health experts bemoaned poor testing facilities and relaxation of contact tracing measures, which was resulting in a high number of cases left without being detected, fuelling further transmissions,” Bulawayo 24 reported.
Well this is the first time since the corona virus outbreak that any health expert has dared criticise the Zanu PF government's blundering incompetence in the handling of the pandemic.
In a country where all professionals from across the board are “captured” by the ruling party, Zanu PF, getting anyone to say anything that may be read as critical of the regime is unheard of. When it comes to saying anything exposing government blundering incompetence, there is dead silence.
Professional ethics and one’s obligation to society count for nothing in Zimbabwe!
As citizens, we all have a duty and responsibility safe guard the truth, not to be complacent in helping to bury it, and to ensure those in positions of power and authority are held to democratic account for their acts. The very fact that Zanu PF does not take kindly to being held to democratic account is no excuse the nation’s professionals have abandoned their democratic obligations. The country’s health professionals have indulged the regime and the nation is paying dearly for it.
It is no secret that Zimbabwe’s official corona virus cases and deaths figures of 37 273 and 1 528 respectively, are but a fraction of the real figures. The country’s frontline health professionals have known all along that government’s testing regime has been wilfully inadequate to pick up all the cases. The people have been blissfully unaware there are many more covid-19 cases in their midst than the government let out. And when dealing with such a deadly disease like corona virus, ignorance is deadly!
By failing to carry out adequate tests, tracking and isolation, it is obvious a high number of covid-19 infection cases have gone undetected and thus helped the spread of the virus far and wide.
Reports of the third wave of corona virus outbreak only serves to underline the seriousness of the pandemic and why everyone, more so the health experts must now play their full role by making sure the people are well informed and that this Zanu PF government held to account for its actions.
Indeed, given the regime’s blundering incompetence in the handling of the vaccine roll out, it could be a long time before the country reach herd immunity. And God only knows how many new covid-19 waves will buffet the nation until then.
The first corona virus vaccines were approved in December 2020. Some nation are looking at reaching their herd immunity targets by June this year. Not so for Zimbabwe!
Zimbabwe received its first Sinopharm vaccine in mid February and so far has received over one million doses. Less than 200 000 have been vaccinated in the last two months which is 2% of the 10 million (assuming one dose will give some immunity) required to reach herd immunity. It beggars belief why two months after receipt 800 000 vaccines are still in storage instead of people’s arms!
Zanu PF’s blundering incompetence in the handling of this corona virus has underlined the importance of good, competent and accountable government. We are not out of the woods yet as far as this covid-19 pandemic is concerned and if every one, notably the health expert, take up their democratic duty to tell the truth and to hold this Zanu PF regime to account many Zimbabweans will be spared the agony of corona virus infection and many lives will be saved!
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Zimbabwe has been hit by a serious milk shortage, with dairy farmers citing viability challenges emanating from poor producer prices, it has emerged. Zimbabwe Association of Dairy Farmers (ZADF) chairperson Kudzai Chirima told Standardbusiness that prices offered by milk processors to farmers were not viable.
Some farmers have quit dairy farming.
What! This calls for Zimbabwe’s superhero, VP Constantino Chiwenga. He has just launched “Zimbabwe Leather Sector Strategy” and the country will have the best leather in the world. He will launch Zimbabwe Dairy Sector Strategy and Zimbabwe will be exporting milk!
He took over as Minister of Health and the nurses are still on slave wages and two months after receiving the first butch of corona virus vaccines the country has only vaccinated 170 000. We will be very lucky to vaccinate the target 10 million by end of 2022!
“Sanctions are behind us!” said VP Chiwenga and there is nothing Zimbabwe’s superman cannot do.
Nachulwe Base station in Binga has been commissioned by the country's Vice President Constantino Chiwenga giving credence to government's developmental thrust in the telecommunications sector through availing infrastructure in marginalized societies.
The station is a welcome development in the wake of the Covid 19 pandemic that has seen physical interaction being discouraged.
Well, well! VP Chiwenga is doing everything and all that “thinking outside the box” he has been talking about is paying off. Yeah Zimbabwe is now on the move w have put sanctions behind us!
Someone should have told the buffoon that e-learning requires human teaches too and at the present there are no teachers. The teachers cannot survive on the slave wages the government is paying them. Zimbabwe’s education services has all but collapsed how the nation is expected to develop with uneducated citizens beggars belief!
@ Tafi Mhaka
“Biti’s early, disputed and finally disproven proclamation of a Chamisa victory demonstrated not only strong political defiance, but also clear and extensive frustration with a political system that is undoubtedly rotten to the core and unfit for purpose.
A Harare magistrate convicted Biti of contravening the Electoral Act, and imposed on him a $200 fine and a six-month suspended jail term.
However, Biti can hardly be blamed for demonstrating a genuine passion for a just and democratic cause.
A party that prides itself in promoting a divisive and clearly obsolete one-party state-type doctrine at the Herbert Chitepo School of Ideology can’t be expected to determine our national soul. Zanu-PF must not be allowed to define our patriotism, or to claim sole right to representing its all-inclusive spirit, especially when political dimwits and sycophants such as Togarepi Pupurai are fronting the enactment of the so-called Patriotic Bill.”
Tendai Biti and his fellow MDC friends would and should have implemented the democratic reforms during the 2008 to 2013 GNU that would have “demonstrating a genuine passion for a just and democratic cause!” They failed to implement even one token reform in five years, proof they are corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent.
By participating in flawed and illegal elections Biti and company have given the process credibility and given the vote rigging Zanu PF regime legitimacy. Biti and company have known all along that their participation in these flawed elections will give the process credibility as David Coltart has admitted in his book. He has also explained why MDC leaders have been participating in the flawed elections - greed. They have known that Zanu PF would give away a few gravy train seats and these they could not resist.
So the otherwise illegitimate Zanu PF regime will use its 2/3 majority to pass the patriotic bill and you should thank Biti and company for this piece of blatant betrayal.
Civil servants allegedly rejected an offer from Government and teachers are contemplating declaring incapacitation and last week threatened to reduce their weekly working hours to three days. Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Professor Paul Mavima said Government was committed to increasing civil servants’ salaries once the two parties find common ground.
Prof Mavima said Government had initially proposed a 70 percent salary increment but there have been adjustments as a result of the ongoing negotiations with the National Joint Negotiation Council (NJNC).
This is just an endless exercise that has been going on for decades now! Government cannot pay the civil servants a living wage no matter what it tries to do as long as the country’s economy remain in a mess. And as long as the country remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent and murderous tyrants who have to rig elections to stay in power there will be no meaningful economic recovery.
What government has done is divide the civil servants into three distinct categories:
a) the ruling elite comprising political leaders senior civil servants and the top brass in the security services. They get generous salaries and allowances and many supplement their income from other sources such as diamond and gold mining. They are living in luxury.
b) rest of the security services personal not included in a). Government is spending most of its collected revenue to pay them. They are being paid enough to survive.
c) are the rest of civil servants including teachers and nurses. Government has allowed their wages to sink way below the poverty datum line, they are the sacrificial lambs.
As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state there real is nothing anyone can do to revive the economy and thus rescue the teachers, nurses and the masses now stuck in abject poverty. Other than implement the democratic reforms, the pre-requisite to end the curse of rigged elections and pariah state; there is nothing else one can do!
THE Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development (Zimcodd) has urged government to craft a supplementary budget to cushion schools throughout the country to ensure that they effectively implement COVID-19 compliance measures at the same time delivering quality education.
In a report titled Analysis of the $600 million schools re-opening budget', Zimcodd said the money paid by parents as school fees was not enough to secure personal protective equipment and ensure adherence with World Health Organisation COVID-19 guidelines.
My only beef with Zimcodd is their refusal to accept the reality that government is broke and as long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state there will be no meaningful economic recovery.
The country is in a serious economic mess as a result of 41 years of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and rank lawlessness that have earned us the pariah state status. We can continue to bury our heads in the sand and pretend Zimbabwe is a healthy and functioning democracy with a robust and thriving economy, that will not change the reality we are a pariah state sinking fast into the abyss.
What is the point asking the regime to pay teachers a living wage when we all know government is broke!
THE Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) yesterday alleged that the Primary and Secondary Education ministry misled Cabinet into recommending the premature opening of schools on March 15, which has resulted in a surge in COVID-19 infections.
This comes at a time when the country has recorded a surge in COVID-19 cases, with most of the recorded positive cases last week being at learning institutions.
"Prince Edward High School recently recorded seven cases, Dove Secondary School in Mberengwa (40), Sacred Heart Primary School in Esigodini in Matabeleland South (117), Sacred Heart High School in Matabeleland South (114), Girls College in Bulawayo (3), Umzingwane High School in Matabeleland South (55) and Mzilikazi Primary School in Bulawayo (8)," PTUZ president Takavafira Zhou said in a statement.
"The ministry misled the Cabinet into recommending the open-ing of schools prematurely. Lies have short legs as shown by a quantum leap of COVID-19 cases in schools since last month.”
What is really worrying here is that up to now the under 20 age group has had the lowest number of corona virus cases. One plausible explanation why students are now coming down with the virus is that their immunity system is being overwhelmed by the repeated and/or large volume of the virus.
It is no secret that most schools in Zimbabwe are ill equipped to carryout even the most basic measures to reduce the spread of corona virus such as washing one’s hands. Many schools have no running water for Pete’s sake! It is little wonder that schools have now become corona virus hotspot, so hot that even the age group that has fought off the virus until now is succumbing!
Even if all the covid-19 infected students recover, it is now known that many of those who recover from corona virus usually have some other long term health problems.
To add insult to injury this Zanu PF regime is dragging its feet over vaccinations. The country has received over 1 million vaccines since mid February and two months latter we have yet to use 200 000 vaccines. We need to vaccinate 10 million to reach herd immunity and in two months we cannot even vaccinate 2%!
It is not as if students are learning anything! Most teachers are working two or three day-week in protest against their low wages!
Talk of hell-on-earth, Zimbabwe with its corona virus hotspot schools are hell-on-earth!
Gao Fu's statement in the south western city of Chengdu on Saturday marks the first time a senior Chinese official has admitted that the country's vaccines were not as effective as previously alluded to.
"The protection rates of existing vaccines are not high," he was quoted saying. He then listed two options to solve the problem: one which is to increase the number of doses, or to adjust the dosage or intervals between shots; and the other being to mix vaccines developed from different technologies.
Zimbabwe has taken delivery of two types of vaccines from China Sinovac and Sinopharm whose efficacy was said to range from 50,4% to 83,5% and 72,5% and 79,4%, respectively.
According to CNN, the two pharmaceutical firms that supply the majority of Chinese COVID-19 vaccines to the world have not published comprehensive clinical trial data in medical journals on their vaccines' effectiveness.
COVID-19 national taskforce chief coordinator Agnes Mahomva, however, told NewsDay that she had confidence in the vaccines, adding that they met the WHO standards in terms of efficacy.
"The vaccines have gone under WHO evaluation and have proven to have a good efficacy rate. According to WHO guidelines, any vaccine with 50% efficacy can be used. The efficacy of vaccines is different; it can either be 30% or 50%, and so it depends with where you are getting your information from," Mahomva said.
"We still have big confidence in what we have because the main aim of a vaccine is to prevent sickness, hospitalisation and death. We know it's not 100%, but the vaccines are within the WHO efficiency rate, and we go by the WHO guidelines, we have our clinical trials and papers in order. We are happy and we are tracking," she said.
This is what undermines the people’s trust in their own government! WHO has never said the Chinese vaccines have an efficacy rate of 50%, Agnes Mahomva is lying! WHO, like everyone else, has been asking the Chinese to make their vaccine data available for scrutiny.
Zimbabwe accepted the Chinese vaccines because they were free! The country is looking at getting most of the vaccines to reach the target 10 million herd immunity to be donated.
According to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor, Dr John Mangudya, Zimbabwe is losing US$1.2 billion in gold to smugglers every year. If this Zanu PF regime could do something to recover even 10% of this the nation will have US$ 120 million enough to buy vaccines with WHO approved efficacy instead of relying on cheap donations whose efficacy is “unknown”!
HEALTH expert Solwayo Ngwenya cautions that schools, which opened some two months ago for 2021, are now super spreaders for new Covid-19 infections warning a “massive and catastrophic” third wave was looming.
He predicted the situation might be further worsened by the emergence of highly infectious variants which are spreading rapidly causing rapid mass infections.
A medical professor, Ngwenya’s comments come after several learners and teachers particularly in boarding schools tested positive for Covid-19 in the last few days with Sacred Heart primary and high schools in Esigodini in Matabeleland South province having more than 130 students testing positive for Covid-19.
I take off my hat to Professor Ngwenya he is one of the very few Zimbabwean health experts who have opened their mouth to criticise the blundering incompetence in the way Zanu PF has handled the corona virus crisis. This is a serious health crisis and hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans lives are at stake and yet many health experts have chosen to see nothing wrong, hear nothing, say nothing and do nothing!
BUSINESS is fretting over the possibility of a Covid-19 third wave, with captains of industry warning this week another stringent lockdown would push the economy over the brink.
There have been growing concerns recently that the complacency witnessed countrywide could trigger a deadlier third wave of the pandemic.
The situation is being compounded by the resistance by the majority of the population to participate in the government's vaccination programme, with just over 230 000 people being inoculated in a population of around 15 million.
Complicating matters is the low efficacy rate of Chinese sourced vaccines as recently revealed by the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention head, Gao Fu.
A third wave could badly affect the economy which has already been negatively affected by two waves from March 2020.
The low up take of the vaccine is due, in part at least, to the government’s own slow vaccination roll out programme. Until last week there was only one place to get the jab in Harare, Wilkins Hospital, and people were queuing for hours to get the jab. The number of vaccination centres has since been increased to 24 and if the same has happened country wide one has to ask why this was not done sooner.
Why are we using the Chinese vaccines knowing their efficacy is low? And why is the country depending on donated vaccines?
Zimbabwe has the money to buy the vaccines if only the regime can stamp out the rampant corruption. Zimbabwe is losing US$1.2 billion to gold smugglers every year!
Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov explained earlier this week that the vaccine’s price was rising as sales were being negotiated, costing as much as 19.50 euros ($23), up from 12 euros.
The prices are in sharp contrast to the vaccine produced by British-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca, which vowed not to make a profit on its product during the pandemic and sold it to the EU for less than two euros a unit.
Bourla did not confirm the price of the Pfizer vaccine but admitted that it was sold at a higher price to developed countries like those in the EU or the United States.
“In middle-income countries, we sell it for half the price,” he said.
“In poorer countries, including in Africa, we sell it at cost.”
Zimbabwe is waiting for free vaccine donations and whilst we wait God knows what it will cost the nation in economic disruption and human suffering and deaths!
Zimbabwe has 37 534 (112) covid-19 cases, 269 732 (16 200) vaccinated 2 021 test per day and 1 551 (1) deaths.
Last week a number of schools had covid-19 cases, these are institutions where one must test the whole community. There is no way government could be doing a good job of testing, tracing, tracking and isolation in these cases if only 2 021 tests per day are being carried out.
The country has received over one million vaccines since mid February and it is now over two months and we have not used even 1/3 of the vaccines. For Pete's sake, why are we struggling to get the people vaccinated!
Is there anything one can trust this blundering Zanu PF regime to do right!
TEACHER unions have emphasised the need for regular testing of learners, educators and non-teaching staff to contain Covid-19 amid reports of an increase in confirmed cases at schools countrywide.
According to the Primary and Secondary Education ministry, more than a dozen schools have registered Covid-19 cases with Matabeleland learning institutions named as the worst affected
There should be no debate on this, it is the obvious solution, particularly in the face of the snail pace of the vaccination programme.
Given companies like Pfizer BioNTech has said they will sell their vaccine to developing countries at production cost, Zimbabwe should be buying the vaccine and accelerate the vaccination programme. The cost of accelerating the vaccination is far less than the alternative of regular testing. What is infuriating with this incompetent Zanu PF regime is that it is doing nothing!
MIDLANDS, according to President Emmerson Mnangagwa, is among the country's provinces that have registered a very low uptake of the Covid-19 vaccine.
The exercise started in February, but Mnangagwa who hails from Midlands, expressed dissatisfaction that his fellow homeboys and girls were unwilling to take the jab.
He was speaking in Kwekwe Thursday where he took his second vaccination.
One of the reasons for the low vaccine uptake is that the Chinese vaccines have yet to be approved by WHO. Why is it taking so long?
Zimbabwe should not be relying on donated vaccines; buy the vaccines! Mnangagwa promised “zero tolerance on corruption” in November 2017 and yet corruption is still rampant. Zimbabwe is losing a staggering US$1.2 billion per year to gold smugglers alone! If government stopped 1 in 10 of these smugglers the nation will have US$ 120 million, enough to buy the vaccines, to pay the vaccination teams and still have millions of dollars change!
Are we waiting for Zimbabwe to have the same corona virus deaths as Brazil or India before we finally demand some action to deal with this deadly virus!
So as of 3 May 2021 427 753 have receive one vaccine jab and 99 765 have received two vaccine jabs giving a total of 500 000 vaccinated and 600 000 vaccines used out of the 1 million in the country since mid March. Zimbabwe is supposed to be receiving 1 million vaccines every month according to Minister of Finance, Professor Mthuli Ncube.
Why or why has it taken three months to vaccinate 1/2 million? To reach herd immunity we need to vaccinate 10 million people, at this rate it is going to take 5 years!
America has managed to vaccinate 50% of its adult population in three months and all we have managed to do in the same time is vaccinate 5% of our target 10 million. We have the vaccines, we have the people and all we lack is the managers, the leaders, to get the job done.
The longer it takes to vaccinate our people the greater the danger of a new wave of infection and new variant emerging with greater resistance to the available vaccines. We are just a sitting duck and all because we have a corrupt and incompetent government. This is the stuff nightmares are made of!
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