BY PHYLLIS MBANJE/ARNOLD FANDISO/MIRIAM MANGWAYA/REX MPHISA HEALTH experts yesterday warned that the third wave of COVID-19 had already hit the country as evidenced by the surge in new infections in the past few weeks, a situation which poses a huge challenge to the already ailing public healthcare system. Stakeholders in the health sector told NewsDay that a new wave of COVID-19 has been spreading quietly in communities since the Easter holidays when schools recorded a spike in infections. From an average of around 22 cases on March 30, the Health ministry’s daily updates have indicated that this has ballooned to 79 cases and with the cases continuing to rise. To date, the country has recorded 37 859 cases and 1 553 deaths. “The third wave is unfortunately here and is building up faster than we can imagine,” said Mpilo Central Hospital acting chief executive Solwayo Ngwenya. “While it may seem like it is under control, the virus is spreading at an alarming rate in communities that have become complacent and no longer adhere to World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines,” Ngwenya said. He said the figures might even be more than what is being reported because of the country’s failure to test extensively. “The situation in schools is difficult. If we wait for that month when schools close, the infection and viral spread will be out of control.  If indeed there are infections, they should close down the schools. However, the major worry is that the students will take the virus into the community,” he said. The Primary and Secondary Education ministry on Monday demanded that students at learning institutions should undergo daily screening for the virus. But Ngwenya insisted that this would be difficult to enforce. “It is not achievable to try and contain the situation within schools. Schools are always going to be super spreaders, government was warned. They will contribute a lot to the third wave. We will not be able to cope with a massive health emergency of this pandemic,” he said. Harare City Council’s health services director Prosper Chonzi in a video on posted on Facebook yesterday warned of a health emergency as winter approaches. “We are anticipating a third wave as we are going into winter and we are anticipating that we get more and more cases coming. The situation might look as if everything is back to normal, but we are still having cases of COVID-19 at our units and in schools,”  he said. “The vaccination programme rollout has started in earnest and we are happy that Harare is contributing more than 60% of the national figures as far as vaccination is confirmed, but the numbers are still not where we want them to be. “The good thing about the vaccine is that if you get infected and you receive your two doses of the vaccine, the chances of you getting hospitalised are very few as you will also not develop severe diseases,” Chonzi added. As a result of the looming new variants of the deadly virus, the United Nations (UN) yesterday urged nations to adopt preventive measures against COVID-19 as the pandemic was