Is Prof Ngwenya's right about Bulawayo's COVID-19 positivity rate?

Is Prof Ngwenya’s right about Bulawayo’s COVID-19 positivity rate?

CLAIM: Bulawayo had a COVID-19 positivity rate of 17.3% on December 9.
Source: Twitter claim by Mpilo Hospital acting CEO, Professor Solwayo Ngwenya
RATING: CORRECT. On the date in question, Bulawayo recorded 51 new COVID-19 cases, from 294 PCR tests, giving a positivity rate of 17.3%.

Bulawayo has a positivity rate of 17.3%, nationally its 3.7%, in SA is at 18%. Anything above 10% is not good enough. So we in Bulawayo we must PANIC; we are sitting on a huge time bomb. Don't be fooled by anyone, listen to advise and take urgent action to prevent a catastrophe. pic.twitter.com/RzzfsaBv0I
— Professor Solwayo Ngwenya (@Solwayo1) December 9, 2020

Positivity rate

The positivity rate is the percentage of positive results from the total number of tests conducted in a specified area at a given time.

On Wednesday, Bulawayo conducted 294 PCR tests, with 51 of the tests returning positive results and giving a positivity rate of 17.3%.

Since the beginning of December, Bulawayo has averaged a 12.45% positivity rate.

A COVID-19 positivity rate above 5% is generally considered to be too high, and in May, when many countries were exploring options to reopen their economies, the World Health Organisation recommended that the positivity rate needed to remain under 5% for two weeks before governments could consider easing restrictions.

CONCLUSION:

Professor Ngwenya’s assertion that Bulawayo’s COVID-19 positivity rate was 17.3% on December 9 is correct and is backed by official data.