Covid-19 situation improving, but still worrying-Dr. Malama

The Ministry of Health has expressed concern over the high Covid-19 positivity in some parts of the country despite the improved overall situation.

Ministry of Health Permanent Secretary for Technical Services, Kennedy Malama this state of affairs still remains a huge concern to government.

Dr. Malama said in a statement to ZANIS today that members of the public should therefore continue adhering to the public health and safety measures.

“Our SARS-CoV-2 test positivity scorecard shows that over the last two weeks we have had an overall national positivity of less than 5 percent. At provincial level, the same was observed for Lusaka, Copperbelt, Central, Southern, and Eastern provinces, whereas the rest of the provinces unfortunately had an average positivity above 5 percent, with Northwestern Province posting a 15 percent positivity,” he said.

Dr. Malama said, “…it is these pockets of high positivity in some parts of the country that remain a cause for concern and why we must keep our guard up despite the temptation to relax adherence to the public health and safety measures in light of improved overall situation.”

He said in the last 24 hours, the country recorded 158 new confirmed Covid-19 cases out of 5,044 tests, which represents a positivity of three percent.

“The distribution of the new cases and within province positivity was as follows: Central 6 (2%), Copperbelt 13 (2%), Eastern 20 (3%), Luapula 16 (7%), Lusaka 11 (1%), Muchinga 19 (7%), Northern 14 (3%), North-western 17 (7%), Southern 7 (1%), and Western 35 (7%),” Dr. Malama explained.

He said the cumulative number of confirmed cases recorded from March 2021 to date now stands at 206,051 while the cumulative number of Covid-19 related deaths to date is 3,596, classified as 2,694 Covid-19 deaths and 902 Covid-19 associated deaths.

Dr. Malama said in the last 24 hours, the country recorded five new Covid-19 related deaths, of which one was recorded as an associated death.

He said two of the five deaths were recorded in North-western while Copperbelt, Eastern and Western provinces recorded one death each.

Dr. Malama further said 346 Covid-19 patients have been discharged, bringing the cumulative number of recoveries to 200,662, which represents a 97 percent recovery.

He said six of the total discharged Covid-19 patients are from isolation facilities while 340 are from community management.

“We currently have 1,793 active cases, with 1,675 (93%) under community management and 118 (7%) admitted to our Covid-19 isolation facilities, slightly higher than the number we had yesterday. Of those admitted, 83 (70%) are on oxygen and 24 (20%) are in critical condition. We had 15 new admissions in the last 24hours,” he explained.

And Dr. Malama has disclosed that in the last 24 hours, the Ministry of Health administered 1,669 doses of Johnson and Johnson vaccine, five doses of Sinopharm as well as 97 dose one and 133 dose two of AstraZeneca vaccines.

“The cumulative vaccinations broken down by dose and vaccine type are as follows: 310,095 dose one vaccinations (303,191 AstraZeneca and 6,904 Sinopharm) and 263,165 fully vaccinated which is 147,702 Johnson and Johnson, 109,127 dose two AstraZeneca (36% of those that received dose 1); and 6,336 dose two Sinopharm (92% of those that received dose 1)],” he said.

He added that the ministry has so far administered a total of 573,260 doses, which represents 59 percent of the vaccine stock received.

“As a response, we are using this period to ensure that we are well prepared for any spikes or indeed waves,” he said.

And Dr. Malama has since urged citizens to remain alert of other possible outbreaks saying the Ministry of Health is currently investigating suspected cases of typhoid reported from Kamwala area in Lusaka district.