WCOZ Situation Report
ZIMBABWE LOCKDOWN: DAY 496

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7 August 2021

496 days of the COVID-19 Lockdown, and as of 6 th of August 2021, the Ministry of Health and Child Care
reported that, the cumulative number of COVID-19 cases had increased to 115 445 after 956 new cases
were recorded, all local cases. The highest case tally was recorded in Harare with 140 cases. The hotspots
updates are as follows; Mashonaland West Province – Hurungwe (21), Kariba (6), Makonde (10),
Mashonaland Central – Bindura (11), Mazowe (11). Mashonaland East – Marondera (20), Murehwa (15).
Masvingo Province – Chiredzi (26), Masvingo (25), Midland Province-Kwekwe (8), Harare Province (140).
We note that the Hospitalisation rate as at 15:00hrs on the 5 of August 2021 was 612 hospitalised cases:
82 New Admissions, 97 Asymptomatic cases, 405 mild-to-moderate cases, 81 severe cases and 29 cases in
Intensive Care Units. (St Ruperts, Arundel and Muzari did not report)
Active cases went down to 25 114. The total number of recoveries went up to 86 526 increasing by 1 637
recoveries. The recovery rate remains at 74%. A total of 37 057 people received their 1st doses of vaccine.
The cumulative number of the 1st dose vaccinated now stands at 1 817 598. A total of 46 118 recipients
received their second dose bringing the cumulative number of 2nd dose recipients to 966 672. The death
toll went up to 3 805 after 51 new deaths were recorded.

Critical Emerging Issues
1. GBV and State Responsiveness to GBV during the lockdown
We continue to raise concerns over the increase in GBV cases in Zimbabwe. We highlight local evidence
regarding the rise Sexual Gender Based Violence (SGBV) continues unabated and that access to services
and modes of delivery of services for victims/survivors of this type of violence are limited in real terms
and are largely deprioritised within the criminal justice system.
Further, our own experience in Zimbabwe, has shown that the lockdown has to an extent exacerbated
known drivers of intimate partner violence (IPV) and domestic violence such as increased stress at
household level, as well as lockdowns and limits on travel making it harder for women and girls to escape
abuse and access support.
Reports also indicate that regular health, psychosocial and safe-house services are being overwhelmed,
while traditional walk-in services are becoming harder to access or are not operating.
Due to travel bans and other lockdown measures, access to critical services such as clinical management
of rape, healthcare services for survivors of violence in the home or family, sexual and reproductive
healthcare, as well as mental health and psychosocial support, have been interrupted. In certain
instances, this has resulted in unplanned or forced pregnancies, unsafe abortions, inadequate prenatal
and post-natal care for pregnant and lactating women, increase in STIs including HIV, self-harm and
suicide.
Our monitoring continues to reveal that survivors are facing challenges accessing services at hospitals. We
note that these challenges are compounded against social factors that already militate against the
reporting of gender-based violence and in particular sexual gender-based violence.

• We therefore recommend prioritisation of access to GBV especially SGBV services in public
  hospitals, at provincial land district levels and at other local clinics.
• We urge Government agencies, Ministry of Health and Child Care, the Zimbabwe Republic Police
  Victim Friendly Unit (VFU), Social Welfare Department, and Civil Society Organisations to prioritise
  awareness raising and support services for survivors of Gender Based Violence especially in this
  time of COVID-19.
• We call upon Government to create and facilitate stronger solid community base for the welfare
  and protection of women and children, during emergency situations and recovery planning.
• We reinforce our recommendations to stakeholders, CSOs and Government of Zimbabwe to urgently implement a dedicated ring-fenced budget to increase domestic funding for national GBV response.
• We continue to call for expanded access to information on GBV services, including publicizing hotlines, tollfree lines and data base of local public health facilities where women and girls can receive compassionate and sensitive care. We recommend that this information be integrated into the national COVID-19 response messaging.
• We call for Government to protect the girl child from rape, sexual exploitation, child marriages and forced marriages during COVID-19.

Outstanding issues
1. COVID-19 home-based care crisis and the Establishment of a Virtual Hospital
We persist in highlighting the implications of Government stretched capacities and fragilities of the health
sector by raising the consequences and the reality that COVID-19 third wave once more will be carried by
the burdens of communities and women in households directly. We continue to call out this crisis of care,
which is unrecognised, unresolved, and unfunded. We continue to highlight the appalling limitations of
the Zimbabwe’s health sector which have been laid excruciatingly bare, by the COVID-19 pandemic. We
note that the treatment and management of COVID-19 in Zimbabwe has largely been outsourced to
individuals and in particular to women in communities, who have borne the burden of supporting the
treatment and management of COVID at home.
We therefore continue to place a spotlight on the announcement by Government of the Establishment of
the Virtual Hospital on the 28 of April 2021 in which Cabinet directly laid out its intent as follows.
“In a development set to revolutionise COVID-19 management, Cabinet adopted a proposal to set up a
Virtual Hospital for the Management of COVID-19 patients. This comes from the realisation that most
COVID-19 patients recover without symptoms or after experiencing mild ones, which do not require
hospitalisation. Government will establish a provisional figure of Ten Thousand (10 000) to twenty
thousand (20 000) home-based beds. A network of health staff will carry out protocol-based monitoring
and management of the cases. The equipment support for this programme is as follows:
1. Rechargeable oxygen concentrators
2. Finger pulse or saturation monitors
3. Non-contact thermometers
4. Blood glucose testing machines
5. Blood pressure machines
The equipment will be deployed to the admitted patients and returned when the patient gets discharged.
The establishment of the Virtual Hospital will therefore alleviate the pressure on hospitals. The public will
be kept abreast of developments in this regard.”

• Accordingly, we reiterate our calls upon Government to uphold its commitment to the nation,
  communities, and women at large, who are at the centre of the COVID-19 crisis, to reveal the
  practical measures taken to deliver upon the virtual hospital and the timelines and expectations of
  when the service commitment by Government will be delivered.
• We call for a progress report on the above programs and processes to ensure that the experiences
  of the communities are in tandem with the initiatives led by Government.
• We urge Parliament of Zimbabwe to remain vigilant in the oversight of the COVID-19 response of
  the Country
• We continue to call for a Commission of Enquiry in the Management of the COVID-19 pandemic in
  Zimbabwe