More than 600 people in Bulawayo have been placed under COVID-19 watch after they recently returned from countries worst affected by the world pandemic.
This was revealed Wednesday by Bulawayo mayor Solomon Mguni following a full council meeting.
Mguni was however quick to point out the city has not confirmed any positive COVID-19 cases so far.
He said the country’s second capital has seen as an influx of travellers from outside the country between February and March this year.
“One hundred percent of all travellers that came into the city during the month of February have been followed up at least once and are all asymptomatic.
“The list of travellers that came into the city during the month of March 2020 was received at the end of this past week. It has a total of 627 travellers that are currently being followed up by city’s environmental health practitioners,” Mguni told the councillors.
The mayor said a total of 1 125 travellers came into the city from areas with confirmed Covid-19 cases.
Mguni told the city fathers that as of Wednesday, Bulawayo had collected 21 specimens with 11 testing negative while 10, which were sent on March 30 and March 31, were still pending.
One of the samples is that of a man who is currently admitted at Thorngrove Isolation centre.
Mguni said the city receives an average of 13 calls per day from members of the public who suspect they have contracted Covid-19 or who suspect others near them may have the virus.
The mayor also updated the councillors on measures which the local authority has put in place to fight the pandemic.
Council last week banned the sale of secondhand clothes in the city as part of a raft of measures put by the local authority to curb the spread of coronavirus.
The city has also limited the number of mourners at cemeteries to a maximum of 30 people per family.
