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We are now transitioning into winter. As a result, temperatures are beginning to decline especially from evenings into early mornings but afternoons are still warm to hot. In the next few days, or weeks, days and nights will be cold as winter holds.

As we have seen since 2020, Covid-19 cases will rise over winter. The Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Monica Mutsvangwa said on Tuesday that the number of new Covid-19 cases continued to decrease.

She said 361 cases had been recorded this week, compared to 437 recorded the previous week, marking a 17 percent decline.

The Minister said as of Monday, the country’s Covid-19 cases stood at 248 531, with 242 118 recoveries and 5 479 deaths. The recovery rate was 98 percent, with 785 active cases having been reported. That is great.

However, as we move deeper into winter, the situation is most likely going to be a little different. On Monday, we spoke to the Deputy Minister of Health and Child Care, Dr John Mangwiro who indicated that new cases were shooting up in some of our neighbouring countries, a number considering fresh lockdowns.

China, which recorded the first Covid-19 case in December 2019, is locking down a few areas so as to be able to contain outbreaks in those zones.

He therefore called on citizens to be as vigilant as they have been over the past two years. Minister Mutsvangwa said members of the public should get vaccinated ahead of the winter season, as the second phase of the national vaccination programme is underway.

She said all provinces will now ramp up vaccination under the Phase II Vaccination Blitz Campaign Programme by working closely with community leaders.

Also, in keeping with the Government’s ever cautious stance, the minister said Cabinet had decided to maintain the ban on schools sport.

“While the country is doing well in its response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Cabinet, nonetheless, calls upon citizens to remain vigilant and strictly observe the national and World Health Organisation Covid-19 protocols, and the relevant regulations will continue to be strictly enforced,” she said.

“Furthermore, there is a need to closely monitor the situation in schools for the coming few weeks before allowing the resumption of sporting activities in the institutions, given that the re-opening of schools and onset of winter is usually associated with increased cases of Covid-19.”

That is the way to go. The country has done well in responding to the outbreak, the vaccination campaign is being ramped up but we must all realise that we cannot relax.

The infection is still among us, with a possibility of higher infection rates over winter.

For us to stand a chance to limit infections, we must continue being vigilant, we must continue wearing the face mask, washing our hands with soapy water and avoiding unnecessary crowding. Most importantly, we must get vaccinated.

“We all know that our statistics show that Covid-19 is lethal to those who are not vaccinated,” Deputy Minister Mangwiro told us on Monday.

“Now that our cases are on the rise, we can only safeguard our health by ensuring all those who are eligible are vaccinated. As Government we have availed the vaccines and we are committed to ensuring we achieve herd immunity soon.”

He is right. Let us be vigilant, observe the preventive measures and get the jab. Also, let all of us be always warmly-dressed, drink hot tea more often and eat fruit and other healthful foods.

It would be actually much better if the tea is lemon tea, zumbani tea or that with herbs such as ginger which have been found to assist in fighting flus.

The herbs and foods, we must emphasise, do not treat Covid-19. However, taken together with prescription medicines, they assist greatly.

If we do that, we are optimistic, this winter will not be as bad as last year’s in terms of Covid-19 impact.