COVID-19: Zim records 98 cases in one day Visitors to Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals go through a screening process before entering the group's premises Picture by Believe Nyakudjara

Africa Moyo Deputy News Editor
Zimbabwe recorded 98 Covid-19 cases yesterday with 47 of them being local transmissions, taking the total number of confirmed cases to 885, sparking fierce debate on whether or not to return to total shutdown especially in Harare and Bulawayo, two cities with most cases.

Forty-three of the local cases are contacts known confirmed cases but investigations are underway to establish the source of infection for the other four cases, said the Ministry of Health and Child Care in a statement.

The other positive cases from yesterday involved returnees from Botswana 28, South Africa 22 and one from Eswatini (formerly Swaziland).

All the positive cases have since been isolated.

Out of the 885 confirmed cases, 670 are active while 206 have recovered and nine lives have been lost.

Harare Province has 250 cases, by far the highest in Zimbabwe, with Bulawayo a distance second on 154 and Matabeleland South third with 151 cases.

The high numbers in Harare and Bulawayo have stirred debate on whether or not to plunge the cities into another total lockdown, especially considering the huge numbers of people on the streets, both in the central business districts and residential areas.

Mashonaland Central Province has 10 cases; Manicaland 29; Mashonaland East 82; Mashonaland West 54; Midlands 80; Masvingo 53; Matabeleland North 22.

Overall, Zimbabwe has tested 82 077 people as at July 8.

By 7am today, the African continent had registered 522 643 Covid-19 cases, with 12 233 deaths and 252 944 recoveries.

In south Africa, the Gauteng government has pleaded with the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) for an introduction of “hard lockdown” measures in the province in the face of a surge of Covid-19 cases.

Gauteng Health MEC Bandile Masuku told The Sunday Times that the hard lockdown should include shutdowns of up to two weeks while the province introduces further restrictions.

“Nobody goes to work and no-one moves. Then the economy opens up again for a particular period of time and then it closes again. So at least there is predictability and you can control infections in that way,” said Masuku.

Countries in alphabetical order

· Algeria – 17 348

· Angola – 386

· Benin – 1 199

· Botswana – 314

· Burkina Faso – 1 003

· Burundi – 191

· Cameroon – 14 916

· Cape Verde – 1 542

· Central African Republic – 4 109

· Chad – 873

· Comoros – 313

· Congo-Brazzaville – 1 821

· DR Congo – 7 432

· Djibouti – 4 889

· Egypt – 78 304

· Equatorial Guinea – 3 071

· Eritrea – 215

· Eswatini – 1 038

· Ethiopia – 6 774

· Gabon – 5 871

· (The) Gambia – 63

· Ghana – 22 822

· Guinea – 5 697

· Guinea-Bissau – 1 790

· Ivory Coast – 11 504

· Kenya – 8 528

· Lesotho – 91

· Liberia – 926

· Libya – 1 268

· Madagascar – 3 573

· Malawi – 1 864

· Mali – 2 358

· Mauritania – 5 087

· Mauritius – 342

· Morocco – 14 771

· Mozambique – 1 071

· Namibia – 593

· Niger – 1 097

· Nigeria- 30 249

· Rwanda – 1,194

· Sao Tome and Principe – 724

· Senegal – 7,657

· Seychelles – 91

· Sierra Leone – 1 584

· Somalia – 3 028

· South Africa – 224 665

· South Sudan – 2 021

· Sudan – 10 084

· Tanzania – 509

· Togo – 695

· Tunisia – 1 221

· Uganda – 977

· Zambia – 1 895

· Zimbabwe – 885

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