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Patrick Chitumba, Midlands Bureau Chief
FOUR Gweru City Council nurses have tested positive for Covid-19 and are now in self-isolation as the municipality is working to convert its vacant mayoral mansion into an isolation centre.

Three of the nurses who tested positive work at Mkoba 1 Clinic and the fourth one is from Senga Clinic.

All the nurses were in contact with known Covid- 19 patients.

Plans are underway to trace the nurses’ close contacts at home and at work to prevent the further spread of Covid- 19.

In an interview on Wednesday, Gweru Mayor Councillor Josiah Makombe said the nurses were in a stable condition.

He said the local authority is now in the process of testing all its workers for Covid- 19.

“This Covid- 19 is real and people must be careful. We urge our residents to abide by the lockdown rules and regulations which are aimed at curbing the spread of the virus. As we speak, four council employees, all nurses have tested positive to Covid -19. Three are nurses working at Mkoba 1 Clinic while the other one is from Senga Clinic and have been in contact with Covid- 19 cases. Remember we turned our clinics into Covid- 19 isolation centres and these are some of our nurses who were attending to the cases,” said Cllr Makombe.

He said these were the first cases of Covid -19 to be recorded among the local authority’s employees.

Clr Makombe said council is working on converting the 20-roomed mayoral mansion, which has been a white elephant, into an isolation centre for council employees.

He said some employees were staying in homes which were not conducive to be used for self-isolation.

“The mayoral mansion is lying idle. It’s a white elephant and we have seen it fit to convert it in the meantime into an isolation centre for our employees. It’s only prudent that we have a decent place for them. Some like these four nurses have been working hard in attending to imported and local Covid-19 cases,” said Clr Makombe.

On Sunday, 25 nurses and three Registrar General’s (RG) department officers stationed at Zvishavane District Hospital tested Covid-19 positive. The RG’s department has a sub-office at the hospital. The positive cases have been put under isolation to curb the spread of the virus. The nurses and the RG’s officers tested positive at a time when about 25 nurses who attended to a Covid-19 positive case at Claybank Private Hospital in Gweru have been isolated as test results are awaited. A doctor who attended to the same patient tested negative.