The Ministry would like to report that results of the Quality Assurance process instituted following an unusual clustering of six cases that were reported as positives from Harare on the 29^th of April 2020 have confirmed that all of them were negative for COVID-19. Additionally, all the PCR tests done in Harare yesterday were negative for COVID-19. Therefore, to date, Zimbabwe still has thirty-four confirmed cases and not forty as previously reported.

The Ministry would like to reassure the nation that we continue to be guided by the key values and principles of professionalism, transparency and accountability and that, the systems we have in place will assure continued reporting of accurate and reliable test results in line with our Quality Management System.

In the meantime, today, a total of 977 tests were done as shown in table I below, giving a total of 9291 screening and diagnostic tests done to date. Results for the PCR tests done in Harare and Bulawayo today, were still pending at the time of print.

Table 1: Distribution of tests done today

*Disaggregation of tests done by province was not available at the time of print

Therefore, to date, Zimbabwe has thirty-four confirmed cases, including five recoveries and four deaths.

Table 2: Number of confirmed cases to date

**6 cases reported on 29 April 2020 have been confirmed negative after Quality Assurance.

The Ministry continues to be on HIGH alert to the COVID-19 pandemic and continues to be guided by the COVID-19 containment strategy which is based on intensified active surveillance, timely case detection, testing, isolation and management of all COVID-19 cases. Further, the Ministry would like to remind the nation that, the most effective ways to protect yourself and others against COVID-19 are to practise good personal hygiene and exercise social distancing.