Mnangagwa extends lockdown by two weeks as country records 2 845 new cases in one day

Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa today extended the level 4 national lockdown by two weeks as the country recorded 2 845 new cases and 38 deaths in 24 hours.

Mnangagwa said the coronavirus that was currently devastating the country was the Delta variant which originated in India.

The virus has already infected 23 407 people this month, more that those who caught the disease in January, February and March, combined. January had, until this month, the highest number of recorded cases at 19 521.

Deaths for this month have risen to 485 still lower than the 854 recorded in January

Cumulative deaths rose to 2 274, cases to 73 271 and recoveries to 48 102, after 1 170 people recovered today, leaving 22 895 active cases.

Although Mashonaland West, until now the worst hit province, recorded 496 cases today, it has been overtaken by Harare in terms of active cases. Harare had 468 new cases today and 223 recoveries resulting in active cases rising to 3 478. Mashonaland had 535 recoveries resulting in active cases dropping to 3 427.

Mashonaland East had 377 new cases raising the number of active cases to 3 102. Bulawayo had 119 new cases but 142 recoveries resulting in active cases dropping to 1 671.

More than 43 000 people were vaccinated today with 29 344 getting the first dose and 14 327 the second. So far 955 656 people have received the first dose and 619 883 are now fully vaccinated.

Zimbabwe intends to vaccinate 10 million people by the end of the year to attain herd immunity but it will not reach that figure at 40 000 vaccinations a day. It needs to up this to more than 60 000 a day.

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