A five-member Bulawayo family which had initially tested positive for the deadly Covid19 pandemic is in a state of apparent elation after it emerged that all, but just one, of the entire family have since recovered from the novel coronavirus.
Lawrence Nyemba from Vic Falls working on a Covid19 portrait… Credit: State Media
In a family with the country’s youngest Covid19 case-that of a three-year-old, identified as Case #19 by the Ministry of Health and Child Care- only the mother is still Covid19 positive with the rest, including the juvenile recovering.
Despite the fact that their mother, who is self-isolating at home, is yet to recover, the family expressed elation after the Rapid Response Team (RRT) cleared four of them last week.
Case #21, a lady, emotionally narrated to state media, the ‘terrible anxiety’ and snail’s pace it took until results confirming their clearance were released.
“We were told we were negative on Sunday last week, that was after 41 days in quarantine at our home and with mum she is still going on and it’s her 48th day. The delay in our results came about as the laboratories (at Mpilo Hospital) had no reagents to carry out the tests, we had to just endure,” she was quoted as saying.
She however conceded that when the results were finally delivered, they were not as happy as they had hoped for, since their mother who was the first to be confirmed Covid19 positive in the family, was not cleared.
“When the results came, we were not as excited as we were supposed to be because not all of us tested negative, my mum was still positive. She had to be moved to the quarantine centre for some days, that was a hard blow on our side because we didn’t know what was going to happen next, if she was going to come back or not. Instead of celebrating, we were now in deep sorrow, we began to pray even more, we questioned ourselves on what it was that we had not done correctly to have her coming out still positive,” she explained.
However, despite their clearance, the four members say they’re still ‘locked in.’
“We were freed to go out but we are all afraid to go out, we are afraid of the unknown maybe. We are scared of answering all sorts of questions that people may have when they see us roaming in the streets.
She also thanked the support the family has been getting from the community while singling out a woman from Gweru who kept praying for the family on the phone.
State Media
Additional Reporting: Zwnews
