COVID-19 BOTCHED PROMISE: Govt Fails to Set Up Provincial Testing, Treatment Centres

Minister of Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Nqobizitha Mangaliso Ndlovu

by Lizwe Sebatha

MATABELELAND SOUTH, April 8, 2020 (The Citizen Bulletin) — Matabeleland South COVID-19 inter-ministerial taskforce leader Nqobizitha Mangaliso Ndlovu has admitted efforts to halt the spread of coronavirus at a local level were hampered by resource constraints. 

In an interview Tuesday, Ndlovu who is in charge of COVID-19 programs in Matabeleland South fell short of conceding that the cash-strapped government had failed to ensure the province was adequately equipped to deal with the outbreak of the coronavirus — which has already claimed two lives in Harare and Bulawayo.

“We (ministerial taskforce) have identified bottlenecks in the provision and distribution of certain resources (face masks etc), and as such, we have agreed to have a logistical committee to work on that,” Ndlovu said. 

“The question arising now is how do we get the resources to frontline personnel? How do we get these things to those interfacing with suspected cases? I guess, with the logistics committee now in place, this will improve.”

More than a week since Zimbabwe went into a 21-day lockdown to tame the spread of the deadly virus, President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration has failed to implement rigorous testing for COVID-19 despite promising to set up centres in each province. 

Currently, testing which critics say is way too low to help health authorities contain the spread of the virus, is still done only in Harare, the capital city. According to daily statistics published by the Ministry of Health and Child Care, Zimbabwe currently tests an average of twenty samples or less per day. 

On Tuesday health officials were pummeled by the public for releasing coronavirus statistics that revealed a Bulawayo victim succumbed to COVID-19 three days ago, yet authorities did report the new case as they have done before. They were also accused of delivering the results of the diagnosis after the demise of the victim who had been hospitalized at an undisclosed health facility. 

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Authorities had not yet issued a statement about the matter at the time of publication. 

Although Matabeleland South currently has no COVID-19 case, its proximity to South Africa, a hotspot of the pandemic, should prompt health authorities to be on high alert, pundits say. But to date, the province remains without a testing and treatment centre with hopes that should the virus strike, patients will be sent to Bulawayo which is also in the same predicament as Thorngrove and Ekusileni — the two hospitals designated for hosting COVID-19 patients — remain woefully under-equipped. 

In Matabeleland South, Beitbridge hotel was recently availed as an isolation and treatment centre for COVID-19 but authorities have been mum about progress on equipping the facility so that it is ready for housing patients. 

Probed about the readiness of Matabeleland South alone in terms of handling COVID-19 cases, given its vulnerability because of droves of people who entered the country through Beitbridge on the eve of South Africa’s lockdown, Ndlovu fumbled for a direct response, choosing instead to accuse critics of throwing jibes at government authorities. 

“It’s in our nature as Zimbabweans to always want to find fault with the government,” Ndlovu charged. “We are supposed to confront the common enemy together to ensure that issues arising are dealt with without resorting to criticisms.” 

“No-one planned for this thing. As we go forward, we will improve but what is not helpful and not needed is an accusation approach by critics. What we need is an information approach to help us improve on a number of areas.”

As of April 8, Zimbabwe had evelen confirmed COVID-19 cases including two casualties, according to official government reports. However, most Zimbabweans remain skeptical of the authenticity of the statistics due to the country’s poor coronavirus testing program.