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Rumbidzayi Zinyuke Manicaland Bureau

Manicaland has identified Mutare Infectious Disease Hospital as an isolation facility for possible Covid-19 cases, but while staff are being trained more work is needed on the actual hospital before it can be used.

Travellers passing through Forbes Border Post are being routinely screened, and those coming through the much smaller Espungabeira Border Post in Chipinge will soon be screened, leaving the challenge of informal border crossings.

Acting Manicaland provincial medical director Dr Munyaradzi Mukuzunga said the isolation hospital needed infrastructure renovations to get it to expected standards but some staff have already been trained and more training is planned.

“Currently, we have health care workers from all the seven districts, Victoria Chitepo Provincial Hospital (former Mutare General Hospital) and the provincial health executive undergoing national trainer of trainers for COVID-19,” he said. “These will then train district teams.”

Dr Mukuzunga said screening at Forbes Border Post started several weeks ago, with officials carrying out temperature checks, as well as looking at travel history.

The Ministry of Health and Child Care (MoHCC) is currently setting up a screening facility at the Espungabeira border post in Chipinge.

But Dr Mukuzunga said it was difficult to keep track of all the informal crossing points.

“It is almost impossible to account for all of these,” he said. “MoHCC works with all other Government Ministries and departments including the security forces.

“COVID-19 preparedness and response is not a MoHCC task, but a responsibility for all of us. The hope is that community awareness will assist travellers to contact the health system once they suspect they are exposed or ill.”

Dr Mukuzunga said the ministry was intensifying training to increase awareness of the disease among its staff and the public.

There has been concern over a woman who died while on her way to Wilkins Hospital after seeing a doctor in Harare with symptoms similar to those of Covid-19.

But tests came out negative.

Dr Mukuzunga said the lady saw a doctor almost six weeks after arriving in Zimbabwe from China, and the normal incubation period for Covid-19 is seven days, with authorities generally monitoring for                                                                21 days.

It was almost impossible for her to have been infected with the coronavirus causing Covid-19 and not detected, he said.

“The concerned woman travelled from China to Zimbabwe on 24 of January 2020 and presented herself to her doctor in Harare on 6 March 2020,” said Dr Mukuzunga.

“That is almost six weeks after her visit. The time Covid-19 takes to develop symptoms is approximately seven days. Therefore, any signs and symptoms would be expected to develop within 14 to 21 days and unlikely beyond that.”