Is coronavirus in Zimbabwe getting out of control again?

Zimbabwe today had 235 new cases of coronavirus with Masvingo registering 82 cases, 73 of them at Masvingo Teachers College which already had 83 cases, and Harare recording 60 new cases in the past 24 hours.

Only 48 people recovered and one died pushing the number of active cases to 817.

What should be worrying, however, is the positivity rate which was 7.7%. The World Health Organisation says the epidemic is under control when the positivity rate is 5% and below.

Only a week ago the positivity rate in Zimbabwe was less than 1%.

The increase in the number of cases comes at a time when a new more deadly variant omicron has been discovered in South Africa. It is not clear whether it has hit Zimbabwe yet as the Ministry of Health is still carrying out tests to find out if the variant is now in Zimbabwe or not.

Masvingo now has 207 cases, Harare 138, Matebeleland South 130 and Manicaland 117.

Vaccination picked up slightly with more than 17 000 getting the jab, 11 152 the first dose and 6 657 the second.

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