The Sunday Mail
Online Reporter
Government has detected the Indian Covid-19 strain – the B.1.617 – associated with a “focalised outbreak in Kwekwe” linked to a traveller from India on April 29.
People travelling from India will, therefore, be subject to mandatory quarantine at a designated centre at their own cost.
Minister of Health and Child Care Dr Constantino Chiwenga, who is also Vice President, said on Wednesday all travellers from India “will be subjected to a Covid-19 test on arrival despite the status on their travelling certificate”.
“Travellers coming into the country from other countries should present with a Covid-19 PCR test done not more than 48 hours from the time of departure, failure of which this will be done on arrival at one’s expense. Travellers will be quarantined for 10 days from the date of arrival,” he said.
On Tuesday, Government announced it was conducting genomic sequencing tests to determine if there was an import of the Indian Covid-19 variant, which is believed to be easily transmissible and more virulent.
This came after a Kwekwe resident who recently returned from India died on arrival at Kwekwe General Hospital on May 12.
Eleven positive cases have since been linked to the deceased.
However, a Zimbabwe student who recently returned from India tested negative after two PCR tests.
Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa told Tuesday’s post-Cabinet briefing that “contact tracing has detected positive cases in the family of the deceased”.
“To date, eleven Covid-19 cases are linked to the case of the person that died in Kwekwe,” she said.
