Zimbabwe's coronavirus cases rise to 14

The number of people infected with the novel Covid-19 in Zimbabwe has risen to 14 after one more person tested positive, the health ministry has confirmed.

This is after 84 samples from four provinces were tested.

"The ministry would like to report that today the National Microbiology Reference Laboratory tested 84 samples from four provinces. The samples were from Bulawayo,58, Harare,23, Mashonaland East 2, and Mashonaland Central, 1. Of the 79 samples available at the time of the print, one tested positive for Covid-19," reads the latest report.

To date, the country has run 547 tests.

The ministry says 523 samples were negative while 14 are positive. Of these, 3 people have since died.

According to the ministry, active contact tracing for the 11th Bulawayo victim who is already deceased is in progress.

A total of 47 primary contacts of this case have been identified.

According to the ministry, it has been established that there were no other guests at the Hwange lodge in which the 70 year-old and his wife stayed for two days last month.

"Following their departure, the lodge has not booked any clients to date. Further, the ministry established that all the 7 staff members that the case was in direct contact with during his stay were asymptomatic," said the ministry.

Meanwhile, in a bid to decentralise testing to National TB Reference Laboratory in Bulawayo, training of the required experts is currently underway with the exercise expected to commence soon.