The Sunday News
Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday News Reporter
THE Government’s decision to lockdown the country after the first Covid-19 cases were recorded was a timely move, with the country subsequently registering overall mortality rates that are lesser than those recorded around the same period last year.
Between January and August this year, Zimbabwe recorded 33 818 deaths from various diseases in comparison to 45 256 recorded over the same period of time last year. With the outbreak of Covid-19 in Zimbabwe, experts had predicted that the number of deaths in Zimbabwe this year, particularly during the winter months, would be higher than usual. As of 2 October, Zimbabwe had 7 858 confirmed cases, including 6 322 recoveries and 228 deaths. The country has a recovery rate of 80 percent.
In an interview, Mpilo Central Hospital acting chief executive officer Professor Solwayo Ngwenya gave credit to the Government for a timeous lockdown, highlighting the intervention has saved lives.
“From the figures that we saw published by Government, the main thing is that the overall mortality was down. We had expected a significant increase in deaths not only from coronavirus but from the lockdown itself as people were not going to have easy access to medicine for other chronic illnesses. So, the lockdown did indeed save lives and I find that Zimbabweans now are very skeptical and don’t want to receive any good news,” he said.
As hurtful as the lockdown was to the economy, Prof Ngwenya said the Government’s decision to prioritise lives had been necessary.
“We can say the lockdown has saved lives because when the first cases broke out, if the Government had dithered and not taken action the virus was going to overrun us and spread quickly and, in the process, take a lot of lives. So, the success of the lockdown comes down to the fact that firstly, it slowed down the virus. Secondly, it allowed the Government to put up facilities because at that time there were no facilities to handle a virus of this nature. There were no PPEs and there were no test kits. So, the lockdown was actually important for the procurement of all those things,” he said.
Prof Ngwenya said the Government could become a victim of its success, as people were no longer respecting social distancing and other Covid-19 regulations.
“This is a very new and terrible virus. In Zimbabwe we asked for a quick lockdown because we knew that our resources were not going to be able to cope with the virus. That’s why we asked for an early lockdown. With time now I see people are now relaxed about the virus and they don’t fear it anymore. These are quite dangerous times. We are living with a pandemic and it hasn’t gone way. It has only started and we would do well to remember that the last pandemic of this kind lasted over a year or so in 1918 and killed more than 50 million people,” he said.
If people continued to disregard the rules, Prof Ngwenya said the country could be courting a second wave of the virus, which could be deadlier.
“Going forward Government is trying to reopen the country but very soon they might be forced to shut down the schools and the economy again. There may be further stricter lockdowns in future because effectively this virus doesn’t have a cure. We have no vaccine and the only thing we have is to face it.
“It hasn’t killed a lot of Zimbabweans because of the success of the lockdown. It has slowed down the virus and made sure that not a lot of people are infected. Of course, now with the opening up we might see a dramatic increase in infections or deaths if we get a particularly virulent strain. I maintain that people should please keep their guards up. The virus is still here.”
