64 Health workers test positive for Covid-19 at Chinhoyi provincial hospital

Sixty-four health workers, including nurses and doctors, are reported to have tested positive for Covid-19 at Chinhoyi provincial hospital.

In an interview with 263Bulletin, the hospital medical superintendent, Collet Mawire confirmed the development saying;

“I can confirm that 64 of our health workers, including nurses and doctors, have tested positive for Covid-19,” said Mawire.

Mawire revealed that all the affected workers were in a stable condition and self-isolating at their homes. He, however, said that those that needed hospitalization would be the first patients to be admitted into the recently-commissioned Covid-19 isolation center.

As cases of Covid-19 continue to surge in Zimbabwe, health workers who are the heroes and heroines in the fight against covid-19 have not been so fortunate,  as they continue to bear the brunt of lack of personal protective equipment (PPEs).

Collet Mawire said that they were quite worried about the high risk the health workers were taking in the midst of a ravaging pandemic as there is a huge shortage of PPEs at the state-run hospital.

“We are at high risk because there is a massive shortage of PPEs, therefore, adequate PPEs should be made available for all frontline health workers because Covid-19 has not spared us as nurses and doctors,” Mawire said.

So far more than 3 000 health workers have been infected with Covid-19 since March last year.

Meanwhile, Health Services Board (HSB) deputy director of public relations, Tryfine Rachael Dzvukutu said it was sad that the virus was claiming the lives of health workers who are the frontline workers in the fight against the pandemic.

She, however, revealed that the government was mobilizing a lot of resources to buy personal protective equipment(PPE) for health workers so as to protect them from contracting the virus.

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Tatenda Mutumhe

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