Mbare Vegetable Market, Corona Virus Spot

MBARE vegetable market has been recorded as one of the hotspots for Covid-19, Information minister Monica Mutsvangwa said Monday.

This, the minister said, came out of an analysis of Covid-19 hotspots that were made across the country.

The analysis was meant to help facilitate the channelling of proper resources to the hotspots among them fresh vegetable markets in Harare and Bulawayo.

“It was noted that persons from different environs visit these markets and testing would give an indication of infection rates,” Mutsvangwa said in her Monday media briefs.

“The Harare Rapid Response Teams conducted tests at Mbare Musika yesterday (Sunday) and today (Monday) and of those tested, 7 (8.75%) were positive.

“It was also noted that there is high risk posed by these markets which include, crowding of clients, poor sanitation conditions for vendors and no easy donning of masks by the general public and vendors.”

Mutsvangwa added, “This errant behaviour in the form of continued disregard of Covid-19 containment measures which includes physical distancing, wearing of face masks and sanitization is also being witnessed in public spaces such as supermarkets, malls and banking halls.”

The Information Minister said in light of the above, four additional Rapid Response Teams were now being established, two for Chitungwiza, one for Ruwa and one for Epworth.

This past week, the nation witnessed a further jump in its confirmed cases with local cases statistics as of 2 July 2020 standing at 2828, a 98 percent increase from last week’s figure of 1426.

Most of the local cases are in Harare (1227), Bulawayo (897), Midlands Province (237) and Mash East (157).

“As such, the Ministry of Health and Child Care will be flighting a 72-hour tender on the 4th of August 2020 for the procurement of 4 PCR machines, 220 000 PCR test kits, 25 000 antigen RDTs and other laboratory consumables,” she said.

“The USD5.6 million already allocated by Government will be utilised for this procurement.”