#Covid19Zim: Two infected people, one of them dead, who never met linked to one individual who tested negative

The Ministry of Health and Child Care has given an update on Covid-19 infection and tracing in Zimbabwe.

It said:

Case #14 diagnosed yesterday is a 53-year-old male resident of Bulawayo. The local Rapid
Response Team visited him at home as part of intensified surveillance and contact racing for the late, case #11. Even though he was not a direct contact of case #11, he was in contact with the visitor from the United Kingdom, who in turn was in contact with case #11 on the 23rd of March
Samples were collected for testing and he was confirmed positive for COVID-19 yesterday.
He is stable, with mild disease and is self-isolating at home.
However, considering that the visitor from UK had tested negative for COVID-19 using PCR, the Ministry went on further to do a Rapid COVID-19 Antibody Test on this visitor from ‘UK. The Rapid Antibody Test was positive confirming that at some point prior to this test, he was infected with COVID-19. Antibodies are produced over days to weeks after infection with the virus.
Without any other confirmed case to explain the source of infection for case #11 and case #14, the Ministry therefore concluded that this visitor from the UK is the most probable epidemiological link to both case #11 and case #14.