Zimbabwe's Low COVID-19 Recovery Rate Explained
The sharp decline in the country’s COVID-19 recovery rate has been attributed to the surge in new cases which has put pressure on resources, resulting in delays in contact tracing and recording of newly recovered cases.
Chief Coordinator of the National Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Office of the President and Cabinet, Agnes Mahomva, told State media over the weekend that provincial teams were preoccupied with tracking severely ill patients who need urgent medical attention.
This comes after Zimbabwe’s COVID-19 recovery rate has fallen to 59 per cent, down from 92 per cent during the first wave of the pandemic. Said Mahomva:
Many have expressed concern over the reported low recovery rate in recent daily reports.
At the peak of the first wave in 2020, recovery rates were reported as above 92 per cent on average, but by the end of the day yesterday (Thursday last week), the nation’s recovery rate was reported as 56,3 per cent.
The recent surge in cases has put a big strain on provincial teams on tracking cases in order to appropriately and timely classify the cases’ clinical status, and due to these large numbers, provinces have tended to prioritise tracking of moderate to severely ill Covid-19 cases as these need urgent medical attention.
