COVID-19 testing cost should be lowered
THE Health and Child Care ministry reported that, the cumulative number of COVID-19 cases continue to increase for Harare and the second highest case count is Manicaland province. Active cases went up to 10 009. The total number of recoveries stands at 13 658, following 262 new recoveries. The recovery rate continues to drop at 56,3%. The death toll now stands at 589, after 38 new deaths were recorded.
The 10th day of the second hard lockdown in Zimbabwe, with the highest daily new case count of over 1 000 a day was recorded yesterday. Secondly, the number of active cases is now alarmingly past the 10 000 case count. In light of the rise in cases and the unrelenting rise in deaths we call for urgent attention for the following:
Provision of well-equipped isolation facilities. These are necessary to support the communities and citizens who do not have the capacity to self-isolate due to social, cultural economic or other reasons. This is critical to ensure that COVID-19 cases in one family do not extend to other family members and risk the loss of several family members due to the inability to support self-isolation at home.
We additionally amplify demands for government to address inefficiencies in the health system which are glaring in the rise of cases, especially matters leading to delayed diagnosis due to difficulty in accessing diagnostic tests, delayed interventions due to lack of equipment and services and the inadequacy of supportive treatment.
We further recommend the expansion of health services, in particular critical issues on investing in health infrastructure to stem the increased cases of COVID-19. Thus, we await the publication of the status of health facility upgrades nationally.
We continue to call for decentralisation of specialist services and critical COVID-19 care support.
We urge the Health and Child Care ministry to announce the current capacity to test for COVID-19 by public health providers in the country.
We call for the government to intervene and secure a reduction in costs of tests in the private health sector — the procurement costs of COVID-19 tests are now as low as US$1,50 and no longer justify the exorbitant charges currently being levied by the private sector at US$60 per test.
Women’s Coalition
of Zimbabwe