Civil Society Organisations have challenged the government to disseminate correct information about the COVID-19 pandemic that reflects the situation on the ground.
I a letter to Health and Child Care Minister Obadiah Moyo dated March 24, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) executive director Roselyn Hanzi urged the government to provide coronavirus testing kits to all the country’s 10 provincial hospitals. She wrote:
Can you provide further information on issues relating to the following, testing centres, indicators for testing, reaction time, inconclusive results as we have elaborated below?
There is a need to establish satellite testing centres throughout the country. Currently, testing is restricted to Harare and Bulawayo and this poses challenges for those who may need to be tested, but live outside or far away from these cities.
Ideally, testing facilities should be available across all 60 district hospitals. At the very least, due to resource constraints, testing kits should be available at all the 10 provincial hospitals.
Zimbabwe, like the rest of the world, is battling to contain the spread of COVID-19, with President Emmerson Mnangagwa declaring a 21-day total lockdown starting on Monday.
Meanwhile, health officials have revised the number of confirmed coronavirus cases from 5 to 7.