Zimbabwe: Recent UK tourist contracted coronavirus

By John Cassim

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AA) – A tourist who visited Zimbabwe last week and returned to Britain has tested positive for coronavirus, said the government of the South African country on Monday.

“Today we received a report that a tourist who came to Victoria Falls on March 7 and departed on March 10 back to the United Kingdom has been found positive for COVID-19 and is currently being treated in the U.K.,” Health Minister Obadiah Moyo told a press conference in the capital Harare.

The hotel where the tourist stayed and the staff there have been quarantined, Moyo added, but declined to give any specifics.

Zimbabwe has yet to confirm any COVID-19 cases but has so far dealt with seven suspected cases, all of which tested negative.

Unlike neighboring South Africa, Zimbabwe has yet to close borders to visitors from affected nations.

Schools are still open and in most public places, it is business as usual except at all ports of entry, like Robert Mugabe Airport in Harare and Victoria Falls Airport, where 80,000 visitors have so far been screened.

Meanwhile Zimbabweans have expressed concern the country’s rundown health delivery system might not cope well with the pandemic, with only 45 beds at the two quarantine centers in the country.