MASVINGO is in panic mode after 94 students at Bondolfi Teachers’ College tested positive for Covid-19 this week.
The development comes after nearly 100 students from the institution earlier this week visited schools they will be attached to throughout the province.
MORRIS BISHI
The ministry of Health and Child Care has since taken measures to bring the outbreak under control with all positive cases put into isolation. Contact tracing is now underway.
Masvingo Covid-19 taskforce spokesperson Rodgers Irimayi confirmed the latest development to The NewsHawks and said the authorities are still investigating the source of the outbreak. He urged people not to panic as the situation is under control and measures aimed at containing the outbreak are being put in place.
He urged people to abide by government guidelines meant to control the spread of the coronavirus.
“We have 94 students who tested positive to Covid-19 at Bondolfi Teachers’ College on Tuesday and Wednesday. There are over 300 students who are currently residing at the institution and testing is still ongoing. Measures are being taken to make sure that the situation is contained and, as l am speaking, all the cases were isolated and officials from the ministry of Health and Child Care are tracing all contacts who were in touch with all the cases,” Irimayi said.
“Our duty as a taskforce is to ensure people abide by the laid down procedures aimed at controlling the spread of the virus. We are hopeful the virus will be controlled and that we will not lose any lives.”
A senior lecturer at the Catholic-run institution told The NewsHawks that tracing the source of the outbreak is now difficult due to the number of positive cases.
He added that nearly 100 students who will be out next term on teaching practice visited schools early this week, sparking fears that they may have infected people they met at various primary schools or along the way.
“Detecting the source of the virus is now difficult since we now have nearly a hundred or more affected by it. This is the result of complacency on the part of the institution’s management. This is serious because some of our students visited schools where they will be attached next term and it is possible that we have more cases out there,” said the senior lecturer.
On Monday this week, Masvingo had two active Covid-19 cases and the province now has 96 active cases. Since the first Covid-19 outbreak last year, the cumulative number of cases in the province is 2 512 with 2 347 recoveries and 69 deaths.
