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Sukulwenkosi Dube-Matutu  Gwanda Correspondent
MATABELELAND South Province has this year recorded an increase in malaria cases with six deaths reported in Gwanda and Beitbridge districts.

Matabeleland South provincial environmental health officer Mr Notho Dube said 900 malaria cases were recorded throughout the province in the past two months.

He said some communities were attributing the six deaths to Covid-19, which was not true.
Mr Dube said under an ongoing exercise to fight malaria, they had distributed 92 000 mosquito nets in Gwanda and 82 000 in Beitbridge.

“We have noted an upward trend in malaria cases that we have recorded this year as they are overshooting three-fold when compared to last year’s figures.”

“From February up to end of March, we had recorded six malaria-related deaths four of which were recorded in Beitbridge and two in Gwanda South. We recorded a total of 896 cases throughout the province with Beitbridge recording 819 and Gwanda 60.

“These figures are roughly three-fold what we recorded last year.
“Another worrisome development is that this year we recorded malaria cases in districts where we had never recorded any cases before such as Umzingwane where there are nine cases and Mangwe which has one case,” said Mr Dube.