'Zimbabwe Is Ill-equipped To Deal With Coronavirus'

Secretary for Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights Norman Matara has said Zimbabwe’s healthcare system is weak and will not be able to deal with a COVID-19 outbreak.

Speaking in an interview with NewsDay on Friday night, Matara urged the government to up its game in terms of surveillance. He said:

We have a very weakened healthcare system; we lack basic equipment and we (will be) taking samples to South Africa.

We don’t have enough resources at the quarantining centre. We don’t have (equipment for computerised tomography (CT) scan, recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for diagnostic.

We only have two in the public health sector, at Chitungwiza and Parirenyatwa. We don’t even have an adequate ventilator for a continuous supply of oxygen. We need to step up our game in terms of surveillance.

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South Africa, which shares a porous border with Zimbabwe, has so far recorded two confirmed cases of coronavirus.

Meanwhile, there have been no deaths on the African continent from the virus, with confirmed cases having also been recorded in Senegal, Algeria and Nigeria.

More: NewsDay