Chinese medical experts share experience on containing COVID-19 at Zimbabwe hospital

HARARE, May 18 (Xinhua) -- A team of Chinese medical experts on Monday visited Marondera Provincial Hospital to exchange notes with their Zimbabwean counterparts on how best to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

The main provincial hospital in Mashonaland East Province is about 80 km east of the capital Harare.

During the visit, the team met the Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution Appollonia Munzverengwi, Provincial Medical Director Simukai Zizhou and other senior health officials.

Munzverengwi hailed the cordial China-Zimbabwe ties, adding that Zimbabwe had a lot to learn from China in containing the outbreak of COVID-19.

Zimbabwe can have lessons on how it can appropriately respond to the pandemic, she said.

Zizhou, in a presentation, detailed the province's state of preparedness in dealing with the pandemic, saying the province had recorded six cases including four recoveries.

"Currently, we are closely following up on case number five from Murehwa and case number six, which was admitted at Marondera Provincial Hospital two days ago."

He added that all the 15 hospitals in the province are isolation centers, and are at various stages of meeting the required standards.

Zhu Yimin, head of the Chinese team, said there was need to scale up health screening at ports of entry, closely monitor inbound travelers and compulsorily quarantine them.

"The issue of transmissions that are inbound is affecting every country and there is need to ensure that people are thoroughly screened at ports of entry," he said.

The Chinese medical team, which arrived in the country last week, will visit isolation centers and meeting stakeholders responding to COVID-19 in the country.

The team is made up of experts from infectious diseases and respiratory illnesses, intensive medicine, infection control, Traditional Chinese Medicine as well as public health and nursing.