As I boarded my flight from Beijing Airport, China on Tuesday evening, all I could think of was what awaits me upon arrival in Harare.
I had heard and read about a suspected case of the deadly Coronavirus (COVID-19), which at the time, had not announced it grants entrance into Africa particularly Southern Africa.
Before I could board the plane, I had gone through six (6) different checkpoints where the Immigration officials, police and health officials were checking, scanning and properly surveilling everyone who would be leaving China to any parts of the world.
This has become the daily routine around the world with bigger economies investing heavily in the screening of the virus which, at the time of writing has killed more 3000 people and infected more than 80 000 around the globe.
Coronavirus is dominating the headlines due to the primal, inherent fear of contagion that unites humanity. In this case, our fears are warranted.
The damage the new epidemic might cause in Zimbabwe is not only a function of the disease itself (which currently is thought to have a mortality rate of about 2 per cent), but also of how it could combine with other health threats such as cholera and typhoid and disrupt trade, travel, and educational endeavours with China, who are said to be our key ally in economic development as well as other critical countries within the region and the continent.
Recent coverage has been walking a fine line between simultaneously reporting the facts and seeking to calm the waters.
The risk of coronavirus to Zimbabwe is low to medium. One has a much greater chance of dying from the flu and other illness than from Coronavirus, at least for now.
However, the biggest undoing to Zimbabwe is its extremely weak and poor health system.
Years of mismanagement of funds and high level of corruption have daunted any hopes of the recovery of the once vibrant health system.
Also, we just have incompetent health leaders. That’s a story for another day.
The Corona Virus, if it hits Zimbabwe (God Forbid), will exacerbate some of the greatest weaknesses of crowded low-resource health-care facilities we have in the country, including our inability to quickly identify and isolate patients who may have early symptoms resembling those of other common diseases.
If nothing is done early, Coronavirus will spread through hospitals where high-quality infection control is extremely challenging and where, in most cases, testing for even regular respiratory viruses such as influenza is not conducted.
Maintaining the levels of infection control that prevail in other countries like the United States and Europe requires training and support largely unavailable to health-care workers who are already overwhelmed by too many patients.
My biggest worry as I crossed the Indian Ocean from a connecting flight in Hong Kong, where I counted nine (9) health checkpoints from the time I landed until I left heading for South Africa, was that upon my arrival in Africa (Johannesburg to be precise) I would be exposed to the virus than I was when I was on my 30-day vacation in China.
However, to my surprise, O.R Tambo was taking no prisoners as soldier and health officials all came on the plane, barring everyone from disembarking from the jet before being screened and scanned of the virus.
Upon completion, another (five) 5 more checkpoints awaited me before I could leave the airport.
In total, I had 20 scans between the three airports before I headed home.
To my surprise, Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport only has one checkpoint, with officials who are handling visitors not adequately clothed.
A lady, who was testing for temperatures on the day, had no gloves on and was handling travelling documents of those people who were coming from the Corona infested area.
That was a surprise! The surprise did not end or start there.
Before coming back, two of my friends who were based in China had made the journey back home in fear of contracting the virus while the other was summoned by his family for the same reason.
However, they told me that since they arrived at the RGM airport, prior to my arrival, they had not even been monitored, they were not told to self-quarantine, and they did not even sign any document summoning them to stay indoors as is the case in other countries.
That is a red light which unfortunately till this day, is yet to be rectified.
What Zimbabwe is lacking is a clear cut approach to how best it can deal with the virus. Things are being done haphazardly.
There have been high sounding nothing press conferences by the Ministry of Health which do not give a direction of how the country plans to avoid the spread of the virus.
Health Minister Obadiah Moyo is on record bragging that Zimbabwe has not recorded any COVID-19 case.
This is true at the moment, but we are at the mercy of forces largely beyond our control now.
If the cases start to occur within our borders and without obvious links to known sources of infection, properly diagnosing those infected will be extraordinarily difficult.
Zimbabwe has a number of people visiting different provinces in China for business and personal and they are ALL potential carriers of the virus and by the look of it, the country is never in the right space to deal with this pandemic.
In a study published in The Lancet medical journal on the preparedness and vulnerability of African countries against the importation of Covid-19, an international team of scientists identified Algeria, Egypt and South Africa as the most likely to import new coronavirus cases into Africa, though they also have the best-prepared health systems in the continent and are the least vulnerable.
In the same report, Zimbabwe is, rightly so, among the most vulnerable and least prepared African nations to deal with the virus.
Many countries in Africa are stepping up their preparedness to detect and cope with COVID-19 importations.
Resources, intensified surveillance, and capacity building should be urgently prioritized in countries with a moderate risk that might be ill-prepared to detect imported cases and to limit onward transmission.
The World Health Organization is equally concerned for these countries.
“Our biggest concern continues to be the potential for Covid-19 to spread in countries with weaker health systems,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organization, told African Union health ministers gathered in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa on February 22 2020.
