BREAKING NEWS: Coronavirus kills 4th person in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe’s #Covid19 death toll has risen to 4 after one more person succumbed to the disease at a private hospital in Harare.

#COVID-19 Update: An 82 year old woman from Mhondoro Mashonaland West province has died of covid 19 at Westend hospital, Harare, bringing to 4 the total number of Covid-19 deaths in the country. She passed away around 2am Ministry of Health and Child Care Dr Moyo said.

Minister Obadiah Moyo confirmed that the deceased is an 82-year-old woman from Mhondoro, Mashonaland West and she died at Westend hospital.

Dr margaret Maulana Exec Director Health Care Services Premier Service Medical Investments said they have now closed the casualty area and WestEnd hospital has been fumigated.

Covid-19 hit Parirenyawa Hospital staff??

In an unrelated story, the Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals has denied social media reports that their employees had contracted Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19).

This comes following a Tweet by one Dr Chris Kandeya who said four employees including two nurses tested positive blaming the health ministry for not doing due diligence in contact tracing.

But the hospital said it i fake:

We have once again noted that there are some unscrupulous people circulating falsehood on social media claiming that four of our staff members including nurses tested positive for COVID-19. To put the record straight, none of our staff members tested positive for the SARS-CoV 2 which causes COVID-19.

“The facts of the matter are that 98 of our frontline staff members went through an immuno-chromatographic screening test,” said Mr Linos Dhire, the hospital’s public relations officer.

According to Mr Dhire, this is one of the screening tools used to identify suspected cases which require further (real time Polymerase Chain Reaction) rt-PCR diagnostic and confirmatory testing.

“Of the 98 who were screened using this particular tool, five required definitive testing method and were sent for rt-PCR which is a confirmatory test. We wish to announce that all the five members who were eventually tested using rt-PCR were confirmed negative for the COVID-19,” he said.

COVID-19 has so far killed over 20 Zimbabwe nationals most of them health care workers based in Europe and North America.