After the Christmas holidays, Zimbabwe recorded an increase in Covid-19 infections and deaths, raising fears of an already fragile healthcare system.
The government has urged citizens to abide by the lockdown, which includes movement restrictions for all but the most essential services.
School reopening has been indefinitely delayed following an outbreak of Covid-19 in schools last semester, while shops are only open until 3 p.m. daily.
There is also a curfew from dusk to dawn to avoid nighttime gatherings and events.
The presenters of a New Year’s Eve dancehall concert who ignored an earlier ban on gatherings of more than 100 people were jailed for six months by the Zimbabwean court on Monday.
The Zimbabwean Association of Physicians for Human Rights (ZADHR) says the country’s hospitals are unable to meet increased demand for admissions in a new report released Wednesday.
“ZADHR notes with concern the limited capacity of local health facilities to deal with cases requiring treatment. The continued increase in new infections has left hospitals overwhelmed and unable to cope with the increased number of COVID-19-related hospitalizations,” the body said.
The organization is also concerned about a spike in infections among front-line workers. Nearly 1,000 frontline workers have been infected with Covid-19 in Zimbabwe due to a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE), the doctors say.
“Our conservative estimates indicate that more than 1,000 health workers are infected with COVID-19.
Medical associations have continued to highlight the troubling trends of health workers working without adequate personal protective equipment, ”said ZADHR.
The doctors also raised the alarm about the limited capacity to deal with critical patients in need of intensive care, while the admission beds remain low.
“ZADHR condemns in the strongest possible terms the dire situation of continued limited ICU capacity nearly ten months after the discovery of the first COVID-19 case,” the doctors said.
Nick Mangwana, Zimbabwe’s information minister, however, told CNN that the government is “on top of things.”
“At the moment our capacity is not stretched. However, we are dealing with a volatile situation where a positive test from a frontline worker will affect capacity.”
“The reason I said this thing could overwhelm us is because people weren’t following the lockdown rules, so we saw the storm coming,” Mangwana said.
Last year, Zimbabwean doctors took the government to court for failing to provide PPE and other safety equipment.
Zimbabwe’s health system has faced headwinds from a lack of funding, with health workers at odds with the government over poor, and often unpaid, salaries.
Last year, billionaire Strive Masiyiwa stepped in to get doctors back to work after months of horse trading with the authorities.