3 die of coronavirus as Zimbabwe death toll rises to 280

Three people, two from Bulawayo and one from Manicaland, died of coronavirus yesterday raising the national death toll to 280, that for Bulawayo to 82 and that for Manicaland to26.

There were 181 new cases yesterday, 85 of them in Harare. The number of cases rose to 10 424.

Some 83 people recovered, 20 of them from Matebeleland North resulting in the number of active cases there dropping to 33.

Active cases in Matebeleland North peaked at 201, the second highest in the country at the time, following an outbreak of the virus at John Tallach Secondary.

The number of active cases across the country rose to 1 390 with the bulk, 564, being in Bulawayo. Harare now has the second highest number at 214,followed by Matebeleland South with 159, Mashonaland West with 114, Mashonaland East 113 and the Midlands 110.

Globally the number of cases has risen to 65.5 million and this includes 1.51 million deaths, 45.4 million recoveries and 18.6million active cases.

Iran has just become the 14^th country to have more than a million cases and could soon be joined by Peru.

In South Africa, the number of cases continues to rise and has surpassed 800 000 though the number of active cases is only 39 700. More than 21 000 people have died.

Several pharmaceutical companies are developing vaccines for the virus and this could become big business from next year.

According to the World Health Organisation equitable access to vaccines in 10 major economies could generate business of at least US$153 billion in 2020-21 and US$466 billion by 2025.

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