President Emmerson Mnangagwa has confirmed that Air Chief Marshal (Rtd) and Cabinet Minister Perrance Shiri succumbed to Covid-19.
Mnangagwa said this while addressing mourners at the late Minister’ s Borrowdale, home Harare today. He will be buried in accordance to WHO regulations.
You can watch the video of Mnangagwa below:
Suspicions that Shiri had died of Covid-19 arose after it was revealed that his driver had succumbed to the pandemic.
The minister was said to have gone into isolation and his health quickly deteriorated leading him to be admitted.
He died barely a day after it was announced that he was admitted.
He has been declared a national hero and will be buried tomorrow at the Heroes Acre Shrine.
There were reports that his family thinks the cause of death might be food poisoing after they were many speculations about the cause of his death.
Savanna News has established that the late Perrence Shiri died after severe vomiting and showed symptoms consistent with food poisoning. His family members argue that even the doctors who initially attended to him also suspected that it was food poisoning.
Family spokesperson Benjamin Chikerema (Junior) says that even though they already suspect that he could have succumbed to food poisoning, they are a waiting for post mortem rsults to reveal the cause of death.
“We have noted social media reports of COVID-19 suspicions. Although we cannot rule that out, what we know for now is that he started vomiting severely and was attended to by doctors who suspected food poisoning,” said Chikerema.
The family is not ruling covid-19 but they strongly suspect food poisoining as the cause of his death, as they argue that his symptoms are not similar to covid-19. Chikerema added that, “He started vomiting and was taken to the doctors who said they suspected he had eaten poisoned food. Around 3am, he started having difficulties in breathing and died when he was being taken to a Chinese facility.”