At least six medical staffers based at Pelandaba Clinic in Bulawayo have been infected with the novel coronavirus pandemic in the aftermath of a funeral wake held at the residence of a nurse employed at the same council-run medical centre, who tested Covid19-positive.
This was revealed by Bulawayo city council’s senior Public Relations officer, Nesisa Mpofu yesterday.
Mpofu stated that after the said nurse started developing mild symptoms last week, she was sent home for Covid19 self-isolation.
The nurse has since tested positive to coronavirus and other medical staffers from the clinic who have been in contact with her have been found to have also contracted the deadly pandemic which has so far killed 16 people in the second city and claimed 36 human lives, countrywide.
“One registered general nurse, midwife, tested positive for Covid-19. She developed symptoms which were mild and was sent for isolation at home. Subsequent contact tracing resulted in three more general nurses; a nurse aide and a cleaner at the clinic testing positive for Covid-19,” Mpofu told state media on Tuesday.
“We received a report about the nurse’s relative who died and the funeral wake was held at her place of residence. We however suspect that someone who attended the funeral wake could have transmitted the disease leading to nurse’s result coming out positive.” said Mpofu.
This incident comes hard on the heels of a worrying surge in the number of frontline medical workers who have tested positive to Covid19 in Zimbabwe.
Last Saturday, 32 more nurses from Mpilo Central Hospital tested positive to Covid-19, bringing the cumulative number of infected frontline health care workers to 151, in Bulawayo alone.
According to the Zimbabwe Nurses Association president Mr Enock Dongo, it was worrying to note that nurses constitute the highest number of Covid-19 confirmed cases in the country, with over 300 people understood to have contracted the virus nationally.
