A whopping 143 recover in Matebeleland North as Zimbabwe vows to keep schools open

A whopping 143 people recovered in Matebeleland North yesterday where the province had been ravaged by coronavirus cases from John Tallach Secondary School which at one time hit 184 cases.

The province now has only 53 active cases down from a peak of 201.

Coronavirus cases at schools  like John Tallach and Chinhoyi High had forced several  people including legislators to urge government to close schools to curb the spread of the virus which has now affected 10 129 people in Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe said it will keep schools though cases detected at schools had risen 281 to 594 following the re-opening of schools.

It said In order to control the spread of COVID-19 in schools the following measures are being implemented:

• intensification of the supervision and inspection of boarding school facilities;
• providing potable water to 48 schools in Bulawayo which are in dire need of the essential commodity;
• strengthening of public health response measures in affected schools;
• supporting all education institutions to fully implement COVID-19 Standard Operating Procedures; and
• implementing COVID-19 protective and preventive measures in the social spaces beyond school premises.

The government also urged the media to report responsibly on the situation prevailing in primary and secondary schools and seek information from the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education and Health and Child Care to avoid undue alarm and despondency caused by the uncoordinated reporting.

There were 95 new cases in Zimbabwe yesterday but 154 recoveries which saw the number of active cases drop to 1 209.

Bulawayo has the highest number of active cases at 516, followed by Matebeleland South with 148, Mashonaland West with 139 and Harare with 134.

Globally, there are now 64.3 million case including 1.49 million deaths, 44.5 million recoveries and 18.3 million active cases.

The United States yesterday topped 14 million cases and has 5.5 million active cases. Poland should hit one million cases today as it has 999 924 cases.

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