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Herald Reporter

One more person has tested positive to Covid-19, bringing to nine the total number of confirmed cases in the country, with one death.

Of these nine, five are imported while four are local transmissions with links to the imported cases.

Government has since tested 316 people for the virus, with 307 coming out negative with the nine mentioned above testing positive and one of them eventually dying.

The Ministry of Health and Child Care said the latest case involved a 50-year old male resident of Harare who had travelled to the United Kingdom and returned home on March 21.

The patient started exhibiting symptoms and the rapid response team went to assess him from home and proceeded to take samples for testing, which came back positive.

The first case was confirmed on March 20, 2020 and involved a 38-year-old male from Victoria Falls who had returned from the United Kingdom.

So far none of his contacts has tested positive.

In its daily alert of March 30, 2020, the Ministry of Health and Child Care reported his condition to be stable and mild.

On March 21, the National Microbiology Reference Laboratory confirmed another case of a 30-year-old male from Harare who had travelled from the United States. One of his contacts, a 30-year-old male later tested positive for Covid-19.

This second case, later died in admission at Wilkins Infectious Disease Hospital, Harare, becoming the first Covid-19 death in the country.

On March 24, the laboratory confirmed another case involving a 52-year-old male from Ruwa who had travelled from Dubai.

Three contacts of this case, a 40-year-old female, a 24-year-old female and a 21-year-old male have since tested positive to Covid-19.

On March 26, Government also confirmed another case of a 24-year-old female who had travelled from the US.

Dr Manangazira

Epidemiology and Disease Control director in the Ministry of Health and Child Care Dr Portia Manangazira recently said there might be need to retest some of the contacts who initially tested negative, arguing that they might have been tested too early.

“We might need to retest all those contacts who initially tested negative because we might have tested them too early,” said Dr Manangazira.