Active coronavirus cases in Zimbabwe surpass 1 500

The number of active coronavirus cases in Zimbabwe continues to rise and has now surpassed 1 500 from just 221 a month ago.

There were 123 new cases yesterday and one death in Manicaland. The total number of cases has risen to 10 547 and that of deaths to 281.

The country also recorded 48 recoveries, all of them in Bulawayo, but the city had 50 new cases pushing the number of active cases to 566, the highest in the country.

Harare has the second highest number of active cases at 219, followed by Matebeleland South with 169, Mashonaland West 156, Midlands 125 and Mashonaland East 121.

Fifteen of the new cases were residents returning from South Africa.

Zimbabwe reopened its borders at the beginning of this month but has restricted traffic to commercial and private vehicles only. Buses are still not allowed.

Hundreds of Zimbabweans are said to be stranded mainly at the Beitbridge border because they do not have valid covid-19 certificates which they say are too expensive. They cost US$60.

Reports say President Emmerson Mnangagwa has declined to reintroduce a hard lockdown despite the increasing number of new cases and has instead said there should be stricter enforcement of the current lockdown measures.

Public gatherings have now been restricted to 100 across the board.

The number of active cases also continues to increase across the globe and now stands at 18.9 million with the United States and France alone accounting for nearly eight million of the cases.

The total number of cases now stands at 66.2 million. There have been 1.52 million deaths and 45.8 million recoveries.

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