89 die from Covid 19 in one day
Peter Moyo
The national statistics on Covid 19 continue to make for sad reading as the number of people succumbing to the novel corona virus remains high. On 24 July 2021, 89 people died from Covid 19 while 879 were hospitalised accross the country. In relative mitigation, new cases dropped to 1 591.
Covid 19 accounted for the demise of 16 people in the three Matabeleland provinces namely, Matabeleland North, Bulawayo and Matabeleland South. Bulawayo recorded 9 deaths, Matabeleland North 1 and Matabaleland South 5.
There were 138 new cases in Bulawayo, representing a significant decline from the 179 cases itemised on Friday. Matabeleland North and Matabeleland South made remarkable progress by recording a substantial plunge in new infections. The two provinces sum of new infections stood at 152, a great fall from the sum total of 335 recorded for the two provinces on the preceding day.
However, Bulawayo and Matabeleland North had fewer recoveries than they had posted on the previous day, documenting 112 and 93 recoveries respectively. On the other hand, Matabeleland South registered 300 recoveries, which is 175 more recuperations than those attained on Friday.
At 71 new cases, Matabeleland North had the lowest new infections for the day among the ten provinces. Harare Province topped new infections and deaths for the day with 277 new cases and 29 deaths.
According to official data of Covid 19 vaccination by province, by the 23rd of July, 132 990 people had been vaccinated in Bulawayo, 91 662 in Matabeleland North and 63 981 in Matabeleland South. The figures indicate that more people seem to have overcome vaccine hesitancy and are choosing to be inoculated in the Matabeleland region although the vaccination program is still experiencing some teething problems such as long queues-themselves potential super spreaders of the virus.
Moreover, impeccable sources in Matabeleland South told this publication that presently, government is failing to meet the demand for vaccines as scores of people are being turned away without being vaccinated due to vaccine shortages.
As at 24 July 2021, Zimbabwe had 97 277 confirmed cases, including 64 628 recoveries and 3 050 deaths. To date, a total number of of 1 438 890 people have been vaccinated against Covid 19.
