Highlights of the situation report

• Fourty (40) cases tested positive for COVID-19. These include returnees from South Africa (6), Liberia (4), and 30 local cases who are isolated. The local cases consist of 13 Health Care Workers from Mpilo (10) and (3) from a quarantine centre Matabeleland South Province.
• Five (5) of the local cases are contacts of known confirmed cases. Investigations are underway to establish the source of infection for the remaining 25.
• We regret to report five deaths; 3 at community level and (2) at facility level. These deaths occurred in Harare and Bulawayo provinces and were detected during routine post mortem as part of our COVID-19 surveillance. We await the full post mortem reports of the direct cause of death.
• 778 RDT screening tests and 394 PCR diagnostic tests were done. The cumulative number of tests done to date is 88436 (52037 RDT and 36399 PCR).
• Since the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak on 20 March 2020, the total number of confirmed cases is 982; recovered 320, active cases 644 and 18 deaths,.

Matabeleland South Province received positive results from NMRL.

High numbers of recoveries were reported based on the new WHO criterion for discharging patients from isolation:

• For symptomatic patients: 10 days after symptom onset, plus at least 3 additional days without symptoms (including without fever and without respiratory symptoms).
• For asymptomatic cases: 10 days after positive test for SARS-CoV-2.