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Bulawayo Bureau
SIXTY-nine people died of cholera between January and April this year countrywide but Bulawayo remains safe from the disease.

The Ministry of Health and Child Care in a statement yesterday said more than 10 400 cases of the disease were reported during the period.

The cholera epidemic which swept across Harare and its surroundings, prompted the Health Ministry to embark on a mass cholera vaccination programme which targeted more than one million people.

Bulawayo, however, remains safe as all suspected cases had been of people who had travelled from cholera-prone areas.

“No suspected cases of cholera and deaths were reported during the week ending 14 April 2019. This brings the total number of deaths to 69 out of 10 421 cases reported so far this year,” said the ministry.

Last week, Director of Epidemiology and Disease Control Dr Portia Manangazira said the ministry was working to combat the cholera epidemic. She said the mass vaccination programme for cholera in Harare, Epworth and Chitungwiza was yielding results.

“As a ministry we are working hard to ensure that we rid the country of cholera. Efforts are yielding results and we are just having problems of typhoid here and there but the situation is under control. As I speak, we have just completed a mass cholera vaccination programme in Manicaland province where we administered the cholera vaccines to Cyclone Idai victims,” she said.