“As rare flue cases increase in the country, a senior local World Health Organisation (WHO) official says there is a possibility of a new peculiar Covid-19 variant circulating in Zimbabwe.
This
was said by WHO head of country Alex Gasarira during a virtual cross-border
media cafe on Covid-19 and HIV new variants,” reported New Zimbabwe
“We
can’t reach a firm conclusion as to what proportion of Omicron, Delta, and
other variants of interest, because the number of samples that have been
processed to date is very small,” Gasasira said.
Gasarira
added that although the Health Ministry and various partners were doing their
best the rate of sample sequencing remained very low.
Zimbabwe
is one of the countries that has failed to test, trace, track and isolate covid-19
cases as per WHO recommendation and as common-sense dictates ever since the outbreak
of corona virus pandemic two years ago. It is interesting to note the country’s
local WHO representative is only now acknowledging “the number of samples that
have been processed to date is very small”.
In
December last year, for example, at the peak of the second covid-19 wave in the
region, SA was carrying out 44 074 tests per day. Zimbabwe, with ¼ of SA’s population,
should have been doing 11 000 tests per day and yet was barely doing 1 500 tests
per day or 10%.
Since
a country’s official covid-19 cases and deaths are based on tested and
confirmed cases; Zimbabwe’s official figure could well be 10% of the real
figures.
As
of 17 December 2021 SA had 3 276 529 cases (328 317 in the last 28 days) 90 297
deaths (707 in the last 28 days). The corresponding figures for Zimbabwe are 186
304 cases (48 464) and 4 771 deaths (60), according to the Johns Hopkins
University. Zimbabwe’s economy is in total meltdown and its health care
services has all but collapsed are yet the country would seem to have defied
logic!
The
Zimbabwe government has bragged about the country’s low covid-19 cases and
deaths; the figures are taken as read and thus proof the measure adopted by the
regime to contain the pandemic have worked. The real figures, which will never
be known, would tell a totally different story!
The
most obvious consequence of failing to test, trace, etc. diligently is that many
infected individuals who would otherwise be diagnosed and isolated are allowed
to mix and thus spread the virus far and wide. And so, many more people are
infected and died. Of course, the more people the virus infect the more it will
mutate and thus increasing the chance of new variants emerging.
Alex Gasarira is right and the rare flu cases turn out to be a new corona virus variant then this Zanu PF regime must shoulder the blame for it because the country’s repeated failure to carry out testing, tracing, etc. as per WHO guideline have certainly contributed to this. WHO has known all along that Zimbabwe was not testing and tracking the corona virus as diligently as it should; why the devil have the organisation said nothing about it until now!
9 comments:
"We must encourage our scientists to continue studying because if we do not have evidence, we are moving blind. If we cannot sequence more samples, we may have other new variants. It is very possible that we may have a Zimbabwean variant because variants are discovered every day."
Forget the complex genetic sequencing of the corona virus, Zimbabwe has not been carrying out the simple tests to confirm the presence of the virus! Of course, the nation have blundered along ever since the outbreak of the pandemic. When SA was doing as many as 44 000 plus covid-19 tests per day in December last year, Zimbabwe with 1/4 the population should have been doing 11 000 tests per day. We were doing 1 500 tests or less!
What is infuriating about Zimbabwe’s very low testing numbers is that it was a deliberate move by the regime for the express purpose of keeping the official covid-19 case and death figures low! The regime has taken the low official covid-19 case and death figures as proof its lockdown measures worked. This was a lie and the nation has paid dearly for it because the virus has spread far and wide with the possibility of a new variant spreading for weeks before it was detected.
Parents revolted at Mount Casino Girls high school today after being denied taking their children home after they had tested positive of Covid-19.
One of the parents who spoke to Bulawayo24.com on condition of anonymity said that the children are traumatized and depressed.
"I only got a message on Wednesday that my daughter tested positive and on arrival at school we were barred as parents to take them home on basis that they are in quarantine.
"The condition is not favourable for the children food shortages and no medication and as parents we had decided to quarantine them in our homes, the headmaster called the police on us and we got arrested for violating the law"
Monte Cassino High School used to be one of the better resourced school in the country and, compared to others especially in the government run rural school, still is. If Monte Cassino is running out of food and basic medicine such things as PPE and even clean running water so people can water their hands regularly may well be considered luxuries!
As a rule, covid-19 has not been a serious health threat among school going age group and the number of covid-19 cases in school could well point to other problems making these children more susceptible to the virus such as exposure to high doses of the virus over a long period.
What is clear is the government was keen to send back the children to school without taking adequate measures to minimise the spread of covid-19. The teachers highlighted the schools were not equipment to handle any covid-19 cases; and they were ignored.
Zanu PF has handled the corona virus pandemic with its usual blundering incompetence a situation made worse by the country’s economic meltdown and collapsed health care service. The people of Zimbabwe have kicked the can of bad governance down the street for 41 years; we must bite the bullet and deal with the problem.
120 students at Monte Cassino Girls High School are in quarantine and there are reports the Police is not allowing the parents to take their children home although the school is reportedly running out of food and basic medicine. Teachers have complained that government was opening school without equipping the schools with PPE, testing facilities and other basics to stop the spread of covid-19 and to deal with the infected should there be any. Now it is clear, the teachers were right!
The nation has had this "new peculiar covid-19 variant" spreading without knowing what it is because the country's commitment to testing, tracing, tracking and isolation has been wilfully inadequate. God only knows how long this variant has been spreading in the country and we still have no idea what it is!
Zimbabwe is in this economic and political mess, the corona virus pandemic has only made the situation even worse, because of decades of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and lawlessness. Until Zimbabweans do something to end this curse of rigged elections and bad governance, the country is not getting out of this hell-hole!
“We have Rhodes’ remains in Matobo.
“What do you think about it? If you go to the shrine, you don’t know whether you are talking to Rhodes or our ancestors.
His remains must be returned to where he hailed from and we can also have our ancestral remains which are being kept in Europe,” charged Mr Mnangagwa.
Political observers say Mr Mnangagwa’s political grandstanding will not resolve the deepening political crisis in the country.
This is typical of this failed Zanu PF regime, they will blame everyone and everything under the sun for the country's economic and political mess!
Why are you interfering?, let corruption worsen so that I can take over, VP Chiwenga is head subtly communicating. Speaking yesterday, Chiwenga said:
“What we have seen in the past few days is never done.” He continued saying:
“Zvekuti munhu anosimuka otaura zvaanoda kuna paramount chief is never done. Zvinoitwa nemunhu anwa mutoriro. In this country it should never happen.”
Chief Murinye holds the Munhumutapa Kingship, but Chiwenga went on to suggest that his boss must take over the throne (reducing him to a mere chief).
He said: “We have one Munhumutapa (President Mnangagwa), we have one leader and it is that leader we give respect. It is that leader we show the entire nation what respect is all about. So, what has been done by Chief Murinye is going to be investigated by the Minister of Local Government and the chiefs’ council and if found guilty, disciplinary action would be taken.
“This is Zimbabwe. I thought I should say this, I respect Munhumutapa (President Mnangagwa) and no one touches him as long as I live.”
Chief’s Council president Chief Fortune Charumbira distanced the traditional leaders from Chief Murinye’s utterances.
“I want to tell the President that we are with you as an institution, what was said is an individual’s views and does not reflect the views of the institution, in fact, it’s the direct opposite of our views,” he said.
With the notable exception of Chief Tangwena and may be one or two others, the rest of Zimbabwe’s chiefs were bribed by the white colonial government to help impose white colonial rule. When the country gained her independence in 1980, the chiefs merely switched their blind allegiance to Zanu PF. Chief Murinye has admitted to playing the unsavvy role of Zanu PF political commissar for which Zanu PF has rewarded the chiefs and other traditional leaders.
Gross mismanagement and rampant corruption are the root causes of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown; the scourges have been going on for the last 41 years, for Pete’s sake. So why is Chief Murinye only talking about corruption now? Is this the classical case of rats abandoning the sinking ship!
If there is one institution that has lost all credibility it is these traditional chiefs and leaders. All leaders must be elected by the people in free, fair and credible elections. A healthy and functioning democracy demands that those is position of power and authority must be democratically accountable to the people. This idea of having some elected officials and others appointed by those in power is foolish, to say the least!
ONE of President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s advisors, Trevor Ncube has blasted Vice President Constantino Chiwenga following the top politician’s chilling threats on Chief Murinye.
Chief Murinye, who is related to Mnangagwa last week publicly warned the president about the rampant corruption within people surrounding him and added this could lead to a military coup, or he would lose the 2023 presidential election.
The people of Zimbabwe are a very naïve and gullible lot!
When Chiwenga and his fellow comrades stage the November 2017 military coup the people of Zimbabwe poured into the streets to express their total support of the coup. “We are removing the corrupt criminals around President Mugabe!” the sweaty coup spokesperson, the now late Sibusiso Moyo, announce. It was all nonsense because the same coup players were involved in the 2008 coup that denied MDC power. The November 2017 coup was a Zanu PF internal matter to decide which faction remain in power.
Chief Murinye does not deny that all these last 41 years he and his fellow chiefs were Zanu PF political commissars who harassed, beat and turned a blind eye to cold blooded murder of Zanu PF critics. Of course, he was aware of the rampant corruptions and only now pretending to be suddenly aware of. This is a very common move in Zanu PF circles; when your own position in the party is threatened play the good guy who is being haunted by his critics for speaking the truth! The naïve and gullible will forget and forgive all the wrong doings and the sinner is now the saint!
DETHRONED Ntabazinduna chief Felix Nhlanhlayamangwe Ndiweni has been declared a fugitive from justice after a Bulawayo magistrate issued a warrant of arrest against the ex-traditional leader and convicted criminal for violating his bail conditions, specifically not reporting to the police weekly, and he is thought to be now in Britain.
Ndiweni (58) ceased to be Ntabazinduna chief on November 30, 2019 after he was convicted in August 2019 of illegally ordering 23 villagers to destroy property belonging to a family that he had banished from his area.
He was sentenced to an effective 18 months in jail for this violation of human rights.Chief Ndiweni is right in demanding diaspora vote!
Mnangagwa promised Zimbabweans in the diaspora will be able to vote wherever they are in the world just as many other countries in the region and beyond have done. Patrick Chinamasa, acting Zanu PF national political commissar, said there would be no diaspora vote as long as the sanctions imposed on the regime by the West remain. This is just a feeble excuse! Why should Zimbabweans be denied their birth right over something they have no say!
Zanu PF is cherry picking who will vote and who will not. The party is denying 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote. Mnangagwa won the 2018 presidency with 2.4 million votes or 50.8% of the cast votes. The 3 million diaspora vote constitute 37% of the potential electorate. How can the elections be free, fair and credible when 37% of the voters are denied the vote!
If Marry bought curtains from South Africa worth more than U$1 million, and had pocket money for children valued at U$27 000 in addition to five cars which she demands must be allocated to her, how honestly was this money acquired and was it recorded in Zimra's chronicles of taxable income? This is only the tip of an iceberg.
While the General flew to China and was treated and returned with his youthfulness and handsome countenance restored, Marry was not allowed to leave the country.
Placed in Marry's situation, if I were allowed to leave the country, I would not return. The state, therefore, has a case. But it places the state in a position of unequal treatment under the law
How did VP Chiwenga (not only him of course but all the other Zanu PF ruling elite) manage to amass such extravagant wealth?
When Chiwenga and his fellow cronies booted out Robert Mugabe and a few others Zanu PF thugs in the November 2017 military coup; “who were in the wrong basket”, as Mugabe had said of Mai Mujuru and her supporters in 2014; the nation was told the coup was to remove “criminals” threatening the economic prosperity and political stability. Zimbabweans came out in the street in support of the coup in their thousands!
Of course, the nation was aware of the Chiwenga and the rest of the coup plotters’ amassed wealth and that it was the same individuals, headed by none other than Mnangagwa himself, who had carried out the coup in 2008 stopping MDC getting into power. The coup was an internal matter to decide which Zanu PF faction retained power.
The coup was not about removing criminals much less dismantling the Zanu PF dictatorship. What was shocking is that the thousands of Zimbabweans, led by MDC leaders leading from the front, who came out in support of the coup.
Last week chief Murinye criticised government for failing to contain corruption. He also admitted to being a Zanu PF political commissar and we all know how the chiefs and other Zanu PF proxies have turned the rural people into medieval serfs who have been frog matched to vote for Zanu PF. But to judge by the social media hero-worshipping from the Zimbabwe public, all his commissariat activities were all forgotten and forgiven.
We really are a naïve and gullible people, and it is no surprise we are in a mess. A healthy and functioning democracy demands an informed and diligent electorate, we are the exact opposite.
July Moyo said Minister Ncube was well known by members of the Joint Operations Command (JOC) even before rising to national prominence.
"Every JOC member who passed through Midlands province knew Mudha (Ncube)."
JOC is the Junta, composed of the top brass in the Army, Police, CIO and Prison Services plus a few select Zanu PF individuals headed by Robert Mugabe (until he was booted out by the Junta in 2017) and assisted by Mnangagwa. JOC is the real power behind the throne in Zimbabwe.
JOC had played a part in the vote rigging and the clandestine activities to disrupt Zanu PF’s political opponents and critics. JOC came to its own the political machinations of the 2008 blatant cheating and wanton violence to wrestle political power from Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC. Everyone in JOC knew they had crossed the Rubicon River, they had committed themselves to supporting Zanu PF and they was no turning back.
Ever since the 2008 election debacle, elections in Zimbabwe were JOC, with Zanu PF as its political wing, vs MDC! One of the most idiotic things Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends ever did was to fail to implement the democratic reforms which would have dismantled JOC during the GNU when they had the chance. The MDC decision to keep participating in flawed elections to give vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy has only added to the party’s breath-taking stupidity in failing to implement reforms.
“3/4 of the MDC leaders are double agents controlled by JOC!” someone said the other day, in sheer exasperation at the MDC leaders’ breath-taking incompetence. Well, that would explain why MDC leaders sold out during the GNU and are selling out now by participating in elections even without something as basic as verified voters’ roll! MDC are now in the business of participating in elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy no matter how flawed and illegal the process happened to be!
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