AN unidentified 31-year-old woman, who was part of hundreds of returning citizens placed under quarantine at Mkoba Teachers’ College in Gweru, has died.
Information Ministry secretary Nick Mangwana confirmed the death.
“We wish to notify of the tragic passing on of one of the residents housed Mkoba Teachers’ College,” he said.
“The deceased was a 31-year-old woman. Cause of death is not yet established. Details will be given once available. Our condolences are with the bereaved family and friends.”
All returning citizens are required to undergo the mandatory 21-day quarantine at designated government-run institutions as part of measures to contain the spread of Covid-19.
Sources told ZimCitizen.com that the woman was pregnant and had recently returned from South Africa feeling unwell.
“We gathered that the now deceased had come from South Africa because she was not feeling well,” a source said.
A total of 358 returnees from neighbouring South Africa and Botswana are under quarantine at the two centres.
On Sunday, 89 citizens from South Africa and Botswana returned home and they were immediately placed under mandatory quarantine.
48 of them came from South Africa and the other 41 from Botswana.
Gweru Urban legislator Brian Dube recently bemoaned security lapses within some quarantine centres in the Midlands City, and warned that many returnees may have escaped from the facilities, in the process exposing other citizens to Covid-19 infections.
“Gweru Polytechnic Quarantine Centre is now full to its capacity of 118 following the arrival of 17 returning residents,” Mangwana wrote on twitter last week.
He added that government has responded to the situation by opening Mkoba Teachers College to house more returnees.
“Midlands taskforce opened Mkoba Teachers College another quarantine centre. It now has 20 returnees from South Africa. Mkoba Teachers College has a capacity to accommodate 500 people,” he said.
The returnees are ferried by Zupco buses from Beitbridge and Plumtree Border Posts and are now under mandatory quarantine at the two centres in Midlands.
Zimbabwe currently has 44 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, including 18 recoveries and four deaths.
