Panic at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International airport. There are fears of disruptions as staff are leaving their stations after coming into contact with Samkange in recent days. Panic has gripped staff at the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International after airport manager Margaret Samkange succumbed to Covid-19 this afternoon. Zimbabwe yesterday recorded 107 deaths from Covid-19, the highest daily total since the first case in March last year with 54 of these deaths, half the total, in Harare which has become the new epicentre of the third wave.
Daily new infections are continuing to fall very gently after the third wave appeared to reach its peak on 15 July with a daily average of 2 355 new infections and have been falling steadily, on average, since with the enhanced level four lockdown gradually taming the wave. But yesterday’s rolling average of 1 899 new infections in a day is still around 55 times the 35 or so we were seeing each day between the second and third waves.
So while the third wave is not getting worse, it is still very bad and very dangerous and hence the Government’s insistence on maintaining and enforcing the enhanced level four lockdown. Harare has now decisively overtaken Mashonaland West as the worst hit province generally recording at least twice as many infections as Mashonaland West, and sometimes more.
The death rates, however, have been continuing to rise even as infections rates stabilise and start falling. This is because the people who die now fell sick more than a week ago and many more than two weeks ago. So death rates tend to reflect the infection rates at the time when those people fell ill.
