Zimpapers Logo

Stephen Mpofu

Zimbabwe has and continues to implement World Health Organisation regulatory measures against the deadly Covid-19 pandemic wreaking havoc across the globe.

However, on the onset of winter with temperatures plunging to very low levels —and with the Covid-19 virtually using the cold weather as its armour — authorities in our country might seriously wish to consider and widely propagate finer measures to protect more lives with the death toll to date put at 4 out of every 40 cases recorded countrywide.

According to Zimbabweans living and working in countries overseas now emerging from their winter during which many lives were lost due to Covid-19, health experts recommend many protective measures against Covid-19 for people entering their winter season, such as African states, for instance.

According to information from the diasporans to relatives in Zimbabwe, one health tit bit from experts is that people should use hands sanitisers against Covid-19 with much prudence.

Official information diffused through mass communication media in Zimbabwe advises people to wash their hands with soap and running water and apply hand sanitisers after visiting the bathroom and touching various surfaces before eating.

But a vital detail is left out and this is to the effect that a sanitiser ingested together with food harms one’s tender insides, according to health experts.

Millions of Zimbabweans, in rural and urban areas — a majority in our population — confront their meals with bare hands rather than with fork and knife, the latter not requiring one to wash off hand sanitisers before eating their food.

The absence of specific information about the proper use of the liquid obviously poses serious health risks to many of our people and authorities should consider including all the salient information on the use of hand sanitisers.

International health experts also advise that, because the Covid-19 virus survives longer in low temperatures and, as such, people thoroughly clean tins containing foodstuffs or bottled beverages which they buy before storing them in refrigerators or eating the contents.

People are also advised by the experts to increase their intake of citrus fruits, such as lemons and oranges, to boost their immune system in order to resist attacks by the Covid-19.

The saying about “a healthy mind in a healthy body” has, and continues to make people resort to physical exercises to improve their performance at the workplace.

To that effect, physical exercise enthusiasts resort to jogging in the morning or in the evening.

Now, in the wake of the Covid-19 world pandemic, health experts have warned joggers against wearing face masks following a fatality reported somewhere in Europe.

A mask covers one’s mouth and nose, and in the case of the fatality reported, the jogger collapsed and later died as a result of his oxygen intake being disrupted according to doctors who attended him.

Our local joggers should take heed of the risks involved in exercising with masks smirk on their faces.