21 people under coronavirus self-quarantine in Masvingo

TellZim Reporter

Some 21 people in Masvingo province have been advised to practice self-quarantine over the next few weeks after they recently came home back after travelling to countries associated with the deadly COVID-19 virus.

Masvingo Provincial Medical Director (PMD) Dr Amadeus Shamu confirmed that local health authorities had advised the travellers to quarantine themselves.

He, however, said people should be well-informed on the difference between self-quarantining and effective monitoring by health authorities.

“There should be no panic at all as there is no suspected case of coronavirus. These are just travellers who came back into the country from countries that are associated with the virus. What happens is that when somebody arrives from such countries and they exhibit no symptoms of the virus, we advise them to minimise their movements and mixing with other people in case they carry something not yet clinically detectable,” said Shamu.

He said the 21 people were in the different districts of the province, and were not in hospital or any medical facility.

“They are not in hospital but are at their own places. These are just precautionary measure being taken by authorities to keep the people safe,” Shamu said.

He also told TellZim News that four of the 21 people under self-quarantine arrived from China, where the virus was first detected on December 31, 2019, while others had just arrived from such countries as India that share borders with China.

By the time of writing, latest official statistics from China showed that a total of 2004 people had died of the virus, most of them on mainland China, while 74 185 cases had been confirmed worldwide.

Many countries, however, distrust official Chinese data on the virus as the communist government there is not transparent on controversial topics or issues deemed embarrassing.