Zim isolates 3,000 over coronavirus

Government  has self-quarantined about 3 375 people who have passed through Zimbabwe’s ports of entry since the coronavirus was declared an international emergency and will avail US$5,2 million to prepare against the virus, Health minister Obadiah Moyo told Parliament yesterday.

In a ministerial statement issued in the National Assembly yesterday, Moyo said at the moment, Zimbabwe was safe, but warned people against travelling to China.

“Around 3 375 people, who passed through ports of entry, were placed on self-quarantine and of these, 2 000 were students from China and are on self-quarantine for 21 days,” he said.

“A budget of US$5,2 million has been submitted to the Ministry of Finance, but this will be availed to us in tranches.”

Moyo said any Chinese visitors would first be put on 14 days self-quarantine in China and, if found free, they could travel to Zimbabwe and further self-quarantine for another 21 days.

“We have to pray to God that this thing should not come to Zimbabwe. I do not want to throw fear in you, this is a shocking disease as it can spread like wild fire,” he said.

“Be aware that there is no vaccine yet for control of coronavirus. What is available at the moment are anti-retroviral drugs, which are capable of reducing or stopping the spread of coronavirus and a number of cases were saved through this treatment. We have these drugs available in Zimbabwe, but we are building on availability of a booster drug.”

Moyo said the only challenge was that the type of testing platform that Zimbabwe was using took five hours for the results to come out.

“It is better than the test kits that took a week to produce results. However, we are waiting for test kits that will only take 15 minutes. These diseases are caused by unnatural interaction with animals (zooroneutic), as well as consumption of the most unusual animals like bats, snakes and others,” he said.

Magwegwe MP Anele Ndebele (MDC Alliance) said government seemed unprepared to deal with the virus due to the country’s porous borders. 

He said Zimbabwe should completely ban any travel into the country by people from China.

But Moyo said the Zimbabwean embassy in China was always in touch, monitoring students there as well as other nationals.