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Lumbidzani Dima , Chronicle Reporter
BULAWAYO mayor Councillor Solomon Mguni has urged residents not to be complacent to avoid a spike in Covid-19 cases during the festive season as was the case last year.

Last year, the country was hit by the third wave of Covid-19 during the festive season, with some of the cases having been imported as Zimbabweans working in foreign countries, especially South Africa returned home for the holidays.

There are therefore fears that the country could witness another spike in cases this coming festive season unless residents strictly comply with WHO preventive measures.

As at Wednesday, Zimbabwe had 133 747 confirmed cases, including 128 517 recoveries and 4 703 deaths. To date, a total of 3 718 776 people have been vaccinated against Covid-19.

Cllr Mguni who was at Thorngrove Infectious Diseases Hospital yesterday to meet members of the Zion Church who painted a ward at the hospital, urged residents to continue taking Covid-19 preventive measures.

“We might be experiencing a decline in Covid-19 but we must not be complacent, we should adhere to all Covid-19 preventive measures.

Let us mask up, sanitise, social distance and avoid shaking hands as this can be one of the ways to spread the disease,” said Cllr Mguni.

He commended the Zion Church for sacrificing its limited resources during these tough economic times due to Covid-19 to spruce up the hospital which is one of the city’s Covid-19 isolation centres.

“The spirit of ‘ubuntu’ still lives amongst us all and we can see that through the Zion Church’s kind gesture of painting the ward at Thorngrove Hospital. We are grateful for this generosity which is a way of giving back to the community that the Church serves,” said Cllr Mguni.

He also commended Thorngrove staff for their hard work in fighting the pandemic.

“Thorngrove hospital is one of the key health facilities in the city that admits Covid-19 patients that require hospitalisation.

“The staff here are therefore among our frontliners in the fight against the pandemic. We therefore appreciate the hard work you are doing to look after our patients,” he said.