AT least three suspected cases of coronavirus have been reported at Mpilo Central Hospital and the United Bulawayo Hospitals (UBH) both in Bulawayo.
The city’s emergency services have reacted swiftly to the cases.
So far, no one has tested positive of the virus in Zimbabwe despite numerous suspected cases.
A Zimbabwean woman who is said to have travelled to Dubai and returned to Bulawayo via South Africa this week was taken to Mpilo Central Hospital with flu-like symptoms.
The hospital’s Public Relations Officer Ozias Ndlovu confirmed the incident Friday.
While stressing that the hospital was just following laid down emergency response procedures, he said the patient has not yet tested positive for Covid-19 and it could have been a false alarm.
“We received a patient who presented herself this afternoon. She showed flu like symptoms. She had travelled to Dubai and returned via South Africa. She arrived in the city sometime this week. She said her husband in South Africa also had flu. However, we are taking all the necessary precautions to ensure that we treat the matter carefully as we cannot be lax,” he said.
“We are working on modalities to transfer the patient to Thorngrove Infectious Diseases Hospital.”
Later in the day, Ndlovu said the woman was examined by the Rapid Response Team (RRT) and appeared to be free of the virus.
“However, we have put her under self-quarantine at her home for 21 days as an additional precaution,” he said.
At UBH, two people reported to have travelled to Italy recently presented at the hospital with coronavirus like symptoms.
However, UBH Clinical Director, Narcisius Dzvanga dismissed the allegations and said UBH had not attended to any white patients in a very long time.
The patients were allegedly attended to by personnel from Thorngrove Infectious Diseases Hospital, who had to be called to the scene when nurses at UBH refused to attend to them.
