A drastic increase in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Mashonaland East Province was recently observed with a major chunk of reported cases from Seke District. The cases moved from 56 to 82 in a week with 21 of the 26 new cases coming from Seke District.
When WHO, National Microbiology Reference Laboratory (NMRL) and Medsure Healthcare teams reached Beitbridge, 640km from Harare, twelve laboratory personnel from Beitbridge Hospital had already tested more than 6000 samples for COVID-19. The tests were done using a GeneXpert machine with cartridges for COVID-19 testing and Real Time- Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, similar to the rapid testing kit used for HIV. GeneXpert machines are normally used to diagnose tuberculosis.
