Respiratory illnesses spike in Byo

BULAWAYO has recorded 223 coronavirus health scares, with all cases pointing to an increase in acute respiratory illness (ARI) cases.

The city has 12 confirmed COVID-19 cases, and one casualty.

In his weekly report on the fight against the coronavirus, mayor Solomon Mguni said they have been following up on suspected COVID-19 cases.

“The rapid response teams (RRTs) (now 7) have followed up a total of 223 scares consisting of people complaining of COVID19-related epidemiological link, signs and symptoms and have submitted 661 specimens of people that fit the case definition to laboratories for real time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests to detect the virus,” Mguni said.

“In indicator-based surveillance, the district health information system shows than there is an increase in the number of ARI cases month-on-month as well as in 2020 compared to 2019, particularly the moderate and severe types.

“In event-based surveillance, the seven RRTs activated on February 27 2020 have been following up rumours of possible suspected cases of COVID-19 since then.”

The report shows that Bulawayo is housing about 700 Zimbabwean returnees at two quarantine facilities. The United College of Education (UCE) houses female and child deportees while the Bulawayo Polytechnic accommodates males.

“Deportees that have more recently come into the country are now placed in mandatory quarantine facilities. UCE has received 278 females and 50 children to date, while Bulawayo Polytechnic has received 356 males. The hygiene conditions are monitored on a daily basis and have been satisfactory to date,” the mayor said.

“Jairos Jiri is housing 30 male streetkids whose age range is between 13 and 18 years that were rounded up from the streets of Bulawayo. The number of travellers that came in through the various ports of entry destined for Bulawayo was 1 774. Of these, at least 1 693 (95,4%) travellers had since been followed up by teams in Bulawayo.”

Meanwhile, Mguni said all 380 contacts of Bulawayo's 12 COVID-19 cases had been identified, classified and followed up.

“A total of 380 contacts of all the positive cases have since been identified, classified and followed up. As it stands, at least 11 cases are due to active local transmission. Efforts to prudently implement effective outbreak containment measures are ongoing.”

The mayor said the city council had also conducted tests on at least 101 residents of the gated community and all tested negative.