Authorities confirmed that Zimbabwe’s Minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development Joel Matiza died of COVID-19 on Friday.
Matiza has thus become the third government minister to die of the virus within a week and the fourth since the virus was first reported in the country in March 2020.
As the pandemic continues ravaging the country, the nation has yet to bury Foreign Minister Sibusiso Moyo, who died of the virus on Wednesday. Earlier on Jan. 15, Manicaland Minister of State for Provincial Affairs Ellen Gwaradzimba succumbed to the virus.
Zimbabwe’s COVID-19 cases have surpassed the 30,000 mark after the country recorded 639 new cases in the last 24 hours, the Ministry of Health and Child Care said Friday.