Almost all cases in Harare are Delta variant – govt

Almost all cases of Covid-19 in Harare are of the Delta variant, the government has revealed.

Speaking at a post-cabinet press briefing on Tuesday, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Monica Mutsvangwa, said this was based on a genomic sequencing for COVID-19 samples collected in Zimbabwe’s capital city.

From that information, 98% of positive cases that had been sampled came back with a 98% rate for the Delta variant, which was originally commonly found in India.

“The citizenry is informed that the national genomic sequencing survey is in progress and the results will be announced to the public,” said Mutsvangwa.

Meanwhile, a decrease in weekly cases from 14 275 during the week ending 27 July 2021, to 11 652 in week ending 2 August 2021 was recorded.

“The decline is mostly attributable to the infection prevention and control efforts instituted by Government in response to the third wave of the COVID-19 outbreak'” Mutsvangwa further said.

Areas which recorded the most significant numbers of new cases were Harare Metropolitan Province (2 361), Mashonaland East Province (1 523), Mashonaland West Province (1 136), Manicaland Province (1 361) and Masvingo Province (1 106).