The Sunday News
Vusumuzi Dube, Senior Reporter
THE Government has scrapped all requisite regulatory fees for the licensing of traditional medicine for Covid-19 as efforts are being scaled up to identify a local solution to the global pandemic.
The Zimbabwean and Chinese Governments recently entered into an agreement to enhance collaboration in fighting the coronavirus through a cocktail of measures, which include development and use of traditional medicines.
Briefing journalists on the 21st Cabinet meeting decision matrix in Harare on Tuesday, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa said they had noted the high costs of the regulatory licences which we she noted was frustrating the process.
“Having received representations on the high regulatory costs for licensing medicines and on the approval processes for medicines used in Zimbabwe from the Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe (MCAZ) and the Medical Research Council of Zimbabwe (MRCZ), Cabinet resolved to waive the requisite regulatory fees for the licensing of traditional medicines for Covid-19 projects,” said the Minister.
Meanwhile, Minister Mutsvangwa revealed that the Ministry of Health and Child Care will, as from 29 June, conduct a three week survey to determine the level of Covid-19 infection in the population.
“The exercise will entail national cross-sectional sero-epidemiological survey in the estimated sample size of about 2 000 households (average size of five members per household) across the nation,” said the Minister.
According to the Ministry of Health and Child Care as at Tuesday the country had recorded 525 confirmed positive cases after 13 samples tested positive for the virus.
The new cases that were recorded comprised of ten returnees from South Africa and three local infections, with the Ministry saying investigations were ongoing to determine the cause of the local infections.
The country thus far has 64 recoveries and six deaths meaning it has 455 active cases.
