Harare, (Samajweekly) Nearly 70 per cent of Zimbabwe’s confirmed Covid-19 deaths were recorded in January, highlighting a resurgence of the virus in the southern African country, Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Health and Child Care said.
In a statement released on Monday, the ministry said in January alone, a total of 854 people died from the coronavirus, representing nearly 70 per cent of all 1,217 fatalities recorded in the country since the onset of the virus in March last year, Xinhua news agency reported.
Several high profile Zimbabweans have succumbed to Covid-19, including four cabinet ministers.
A total of 33,388 infections have been reported since March 2020, with 19,521 being recorded in January, data from the ministry shows.
However, new confirmed infections have been declining for the past week.
The national recovery rate currently stands at 78 per cent, with 26,004 people having recovered from the virus.
Zimbabwe is in the middle of a six-week lockdown imposed to curtail the spread of the coronavirus.
The government is in the process of mobilizing the necessary resources to buy Covid-19 vaccines.
A total of US $100 million has been set aside so far for the procurement of Covid-19 vaccine doses, enough to inoculate at least 60 per cent of the country’s population.
