Staff Writer
TELEVISION personality, Zororo Makamba who succumbed to the deadly Coronavirus may have spread the bug to Banc-ABC workers he met last week before testing positive.
In a statement released Tuesday Banc-ABC chief executive, Dr Lance Mambondiani confirmed the meeting took place.
“BancABC would like to advise all our stakeholders that patient 2 as confirmed by the Health Ministry (Zororo) visited our Mount Pleasant Campus on Tuesday 17 March 2020 at 11:30 am and had a meeting with four of our staff members for about 15 minutes,” he said.
Mambondiani said the bank was immediately and subsequently advised that the patient had tested positive for COVID19 on Saturday morning and immediately activated recommended protocols in consultation with the City Health Department.
The development confirms the lack of seriousness over the disease by both the business community and the members of public in Zimbabwe indicating the possibilities of more cases being reported going forward.
Shops have remained open and even after President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s directives on the virus issued last week, Zimbabweans have criticised him for addressing thousands of his Zanu-pf party supporters just a day after announcing the measures.
However, Banc-ABC said all employees who interacted with Makamba were immediately identified for further management.
“Whilst none of the employees has shown any symptoms preventive measures which include a 14 day self-quarantine as per health officials guidelines have been activated. The bank has already commenced a sanitisation exercise of our head office and all the branches including social distancing practices to enable business continuity through this crisis,” Mambondiani said.
Questions on the effectiveness of the strategies pursued by Ban-ABC in following up everyone who interacted with their employees remain unanswered considering the risk embedded in workplace and after work interactions.
