Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Health and Child Care on Friday announced 639 new coronavirus (COVID-19) cases, bringing total confirmed infections to 30,047.
The ministry said 38 deaths were recorded over the period, raising the country’s toll to 917.
A total of 19,569 people have so far recovered from the disease since the first case was reported in March 2020.
Zimbabwe is in the middle of a new 30-day lockdown imposed on Jan. 5 to curtail the further spread of the pandemic.
This week, Zimbabwe’s foreign minister, Sibusiso Moyo, died after contracting COVID-19.
Moyo, a former army general who announced the military coup that led to the removal of the late long-serving leader Robert Mugabe in November 2017, died at a local hospital early on Wednesday.
Moyo was one of several generals who, after helping plot the coup, were rewarded with senior positions in President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s cabinet and the ruling ZANU-PF party.
Another cabinet minister, retired general and agriculture minister Perrance Shiri, died of the virus last July.
