Mashudu Netsianda, Senior Reporter
CIVIL servants reporting for duty during the lockdown including health workers in both public and private sectors and people interfacing with communities are now required to undergo mandatory Covid-19 testing as Government intensifies the fight against the spread of the global pandemic.

The latest development is in line with a new strategy for testing Covid-19, which was approved by the Inter-Ministerial Taskforce on Covid-19 chaired by Vice-President Kembo Mohadi.

In a letter dated April 14, 2020, which was copied to all provincial medical directors, hospital chief executive officers, city health directors and private hospitals, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health and Child Care Dr Agnes Mahomva said her ministry is targeting to test at least 33 000 people for Covid-19 across the country by April 30.

She said testing will be done using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for both screening and diagnosis and rapid diagnostic tests (RDT) for screening purposes only.

“In order to achieve the required level of testing and therefore generate sufficient evidence for programming of the Covid-19 pandemic in Zimbabwe, a strategy for testing has been presented and approved by the Inter-Ministerial Taskforce on Covid-19 chaired by Vice-President Kembo Mohadi. “With immediate effect, the following groups of people will therefore be tested for Covid-19 and these include people who have been working during the lockdown and were interfacing with the community such as law enforcement agents, employees from service providers like retail business, petrol attendants and food outlet employees,” she said.

“The Ministry will use the RDTs and prioritise all Government employees in all provinces reporting for duty to be tested to allow us to get a mapping where positive cases/clusters are as they interface with the community.”

All people above 60 years admitted to hospitals who have chronic illnesses that include asthma, hypertension, diabetes and heart diseases including those with influenza like illnesses in communities and hospitals will also be tested for Covid-19.

Dr Mahomva said all travellers coming into the country from affected countries in designated quarantine facilities will also be subjected to mandatory Covid-19 testing using RDT on arrival and PCR on discharge.

She said all contacts of confirmed cases regardless of not showing symptoms of the disease, including all patients admitted to hospitals for pneumonia and fever also fall in that category including the community around a cluster of cases.

“You are required to immediately dispatch teams to collect samples for testing individuals for the above categories, ” said Dr Mahomva. — @mashnets.