NEW: ‘Intensify mitigation against new Covid-19 variant’

26 Nov, 2021 - 20:11 0 Views
NEW: ‘Intensify mitigation against new Covid-19 variant’

The Sunday Mail

Online Reporter

Zimbabweans should intensify mitigation measures against the spread of the latest Covid-19 variant, Health and Child Care Minister Dr Constantino Chiwenga has said.

A new variant of Covid-19 has been detected and reported in South Africa, following a surge in cases in that country recently.

The new variant, which is known as B.1.1.529, has numerous points of mutation as compared to the Delta variant.

In a statement on Thursday, Dr Chiwenga urged citizens to intensify Covid-19 mitigation measures.

“The Ministry of Health and Child Care wishes to inform the nation that a new variant of SARS-COV-2 now known as B.1.1.529 was detected and reported in South Africa on the 24th of November 2021 after a surge of cases were reported in that country,” he said.

“It is important also to emphasize that the most important measure available for the prevention of this and other Covid-19 variants is the uptake of the Covid-19 vaccine which the Government is rolling out for free in all provinces and cities.”

The Health Minister said the new variant has not yet been detected in Zimbabwe.

“Zimbabwe is yet to detect this new variant among the few cases being reported in the country.

“New samples will be collected for genomic sequencing surveillance from among the cases being detected at the Points of Entry and from any clusters,” said Dr Chiwenga.

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