The Zimbabwe Health Apex Council says about 40 nurses have been placed on quarantine at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals after exposure to a Covid-19 patient.
The patient was admitted as a malaria patient but tests later revealed that he had contracted coronavirus.
In a letter addressed to the Health Service Board, the Zimbabwe Health Apex Council blamed shortages of personal protective equipment (PPEs) in most hospitals for the exposure of health workers. The Council wrote:
The PPEs that are currently being provided are inadequate to give necessary protection to employees.
For example, health workers are not wearing N95 respirator masks, but instead are being provided with surgical masks.
Not only this, instead of wearing a gown, but they are also provided with plastic aprons which are totally incapable of offering any protection against Covid-19.
Currently, we have an approximate number of 40 nurses who had to undergo quarantine after it was deemed they had been in contact with a Covid-19 patient at Parirenyatwa.
Meanwhile, as of 11 May 2020, Zimbabwe had recorded 37 COVI9-19 cases including 12 recoveries and 4 deaths.