Government has released 285 returnees from different quarantine facilities after they tested negative for Covid-19, 263Chat has learnt.
Addressing the press yesterday, Minister of Health and Child Care, Dr Obadiah Moyo said the decision to release the returnees was aimed at clearing quarantine facilities to pave way for new returnees who will be tested using the antigen based test, PCR, on their first day in line with new guidelines.
“The whole process of testing and discharging has been done and this has been done very efficiently and we have set the parameters on how it should be done. There are now guidelines on how we should be working with people in the quarantine areas. They are not there to be disadvantaged, they are there to be assisted as we follow the regulations as published,” said Dr Moyo.
The new guidelines stipulate that returnees will be tested using PCR on day one before they are even taken for compulsory quarantine, with those who test positive immediately taken to isolation facilities while those who test negative going into mandatory quarantine facilities.
A second test is done on day eight for those in quarantine facilities, again, using the PCR test from which those positive would be taken to an isolation facility while those who test negative will be discharged and allowed to complete their 21-days of quarantine at home.
115 more people are set to get their test results tomorrow.
The continued quarantining of returning residents is instrumental in controlling the spread of Covid-19 as the overwhelming majority of infected Zimbabweans were infected outside the country with only a small minority being infected within the community.
A number of returnees had gone beyond eight days in mandatory quarantine owing to a shortage of test kits to determine their eligibility for discharge prompting criticism from human rights pressure groups.
1 400 returning citizens and residents have been released from quarantine centres after being found free of infection.
To date, the country has recorded 320 cases of COVID-19, 49 recoveries and four deaths.
