BY NOKUTHABA DLAMINI

Poor living conditions are being blamed for a spike in Covid-19 cases in the coal mining town of Hwange, which has emerged as a hotspot during the ongoing third wave of the pandemic.

Munekayi Padingani, Matabeleland North provincial medical director, said most of the Covid-19 cases recorded in the province in the last few weeks were largely from Hwange urban.

Most of the people in the town are employees or former employees of the struggling Hwange Colliery Company Limited (HCCL).

There are also widows of former HCCL employees and their children, who have not received terminal benefits for their dead parents and are unable to pay for appropriate accommodation.

HCCL has been struggling to pay current employees and former employees for years and this has seen some of them leaving in squalor.

“If you look at Hwange urban people, especially those from the colliery, they are living under disturbing conditions and many of them have not been vaccinated,” Padingani said.

“So, the risk of transmission is high.”

According to a recent report by the Zimbabwe Christian Alliance, about 8 000 people in Hwange still share public toilets while others resort to open spaces to relieve themselves.

Health experts say the situation has left hundreds of residents exposed to serious health hazards, including disease outbreaks.

Padingani said the reason behind the high number of Covid-19 cases in Hwange urban was the large concentration of people due to mining activities around the town.

“When they go underground the rate of transmission is also high due to overcrowding and limited breathing space,” he said.

Padingani, however, also noted that Hwange had one of the highest Covid-19 testing rates in Matabeleland North compared to districts such as Nkayi, Binga, Tsholotsho, Bubi, Lupane and Umguza.

“Hwange has many diagnostic centres,” he said. “So apart from (the overcrowding), it could be because they are testing a lot of people and that district also has private testing facilities.

“For instance, in Victoria Falls, the tourists when they are coming in have to be tested and even when they leave, they go through the same process of testing.

“So, the test rate in Hwange is higher compared to other districts.”

Padingani said they have dispatched more doses of Covid-19 vaccines to Hwange district to vaccinate 60 000 people within a short space of time to achieve herd immunity.

“The distribution we are doing is based on covering hotspots first and in Hwange district, we are giving them more because they have a higher burden,” he added.

“We want to make sure that many people are vaccinated as we aim to reach herd immunity very quickly in that district so that the transmission rate is reduced and in Binga as well.”

Padingani said Matabeleland North has in the past month received 160 000 doses of both the Sinopharm and Sinovac Covid-19 vaccines.

As of Monday, 136 024 people had received their first doses of the vaccine in the province and 64 961 had received their second doses.

The province had 1 462 active Covid-19 cases as of Monday.