CLAIM: Zimbabwe has been singled out as a high-risk COVID-19 hotspot by the United States’ Centres for Disease Control.
Source: Social media posts
RATING: MISLEADING
Amid rising COVID-19 deaths and infections in Zimbabwe, some social media users have recently claimed the country has been designated a hotspot by the United States Centres for Disease Control (CDC), while some of its neighbours have not.
Government critic Hopewell Chin’ono, who has 177,000 followers on Twitter, tweeted that while the CDC had “raised Zimbabwe’s COVID-19 danger status to the highest level, the US agency had not done the same for “Botswana…or every other country.”
A voice note, purportedly generated by a Zimbabwean living in the United States and circulated on WhatsApp, also claimed Zimbabwe had been singled out by the CDC:
“Here in America, we’ve been given a warning by the Centres for Disease Control not to travel to Zimbabwe,” went the claim. “They specifically wrote that we shouldn’t go to Zimbabwe because of COVID-19. They did not mention Africa, but Zimbabwe.”
What has the CDC done?
The CDC regularly issues travel health notices to alert travelers to health threats around the world. Currently, the CDC is using four tiers to rate risks involved in travelling to various destinations, depending on the severity of COVID-19 in the respective countries and territories.
As of January 11, 2021, Zimbabwe was one of 178 countries and territories under the CDC’s level four, deemed to have the highest level of COVID-19 risk.
According to CDC, the number one criterion for determining a country’s threat level is the incidence rate. Countries with new cases exceeding 100 per 100,000 people over the past 28 days have the highest COVID-19 level, according to the CDC criteria.
Currently, Zimbabwe’s incidence rate is running in excess of 600 per 100,000, having reported 10,231 new cases since December 13, 2020.
The countries in red fall under the CDC’s level 4 – with the highest COVID-19 risk. Source – US Centres for Disease Control (CDC)
With much of the world experiencing a second wave of COVID-19 infections, the overwhelming majority of countries and territories under the CDC watch currently fall under level 4, along with Zimbabwe.
Most African countries are in the CDC’s highest risk bracket, with only Benin, Ivory Coast and Sierra Leone being in the low risk category, along the likes of China, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and 38 other territories, mostly islands.
Equatorial Guinea, Mauritius, Rwanda and the Seychelles fall under the CDC’s level 2, where the COVID-19 risk is considered moderate.
CONCLUSION:
While it is true that the CDC has classified Zimbabwe as a high COVID-19 risk destination, urging people not to travel to the country, the suggestion that it has been specifically targeted by the CDC is misleading.
Zimbabwe is just one of 178 countries and territories, including most of Africa, Europe, Asia and South America, designated as high risk by the CDC.
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