麻豆社

Zimbabwe shares a long border with South Africa, where the Omicron variant was first identified in November, and reported cases of Covid infections have risen from 30 a day to 5,500 in the last week and a half. Zimbabwe has also been hit by a huge exodus of health professionals amid the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the government's Health Service Board.

Rashida Ferrand, an epidemiologist who leads a research partnership between a Zimbabwean health facility and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, says that cases and hospitalisations are rising fast and there are concerns over sufficient staffing at health facilities and the supply of oxygen.聽聽She says that the government has reinforced messages around masks wearing and the need for vaccines, but has stopped short of a total lockdown.

Photo: A woman wearing a face mask carries a child as she walks at Harare General Hospital in Harare, Zimbabwe December 2021 Credit: EPA