Dr Canisius Banda says people should begin adjusting to live with the novel Coronavirus just like they have adjusted to other diseases because, in his view, COVID-19 is here to stay.
And Banda says much of Zambia is shielded from COVID-19 to some extent seeing that 50 per cent of the country’s population is either 14 years and below and that people of this age are less likely to contract the virus.

In an interview, Banda said it was foolish to think that a day would come when there would be no COVID-19.

“There must always be a healthy balance between the demands of public health and those of economies. Let us always be wary of science becoming an instrument of tyranny. The future includes proper policing of all scientists in the world who are every day manipulating already existing germs and threatening global health security in the process,” he said.

“People will catch a cold, people will go to the clinic and they will heal. That’s the way it’s supposed to be. We can’t just be at home afraid that there is death out there when actually, the statistics don’t show that there is death out there in this country. This is much ado about nothing, so people should go back to work,” Dr Banda said.

“This COVID-19, just like malaria, cholera and other diseases will be with us for as long as we are alive. The [virus] will continue to be with us for as long as we are alive, people will continue to catch the disease and overtime, you and me will develop immunity to it and it will become less severe with time. COVID-19 is particularly dangerous at the moment because it’s a new [virus]. So the COVID-19 [virus] will be with us just like the cholera germ and the malaria germ. Has HIV gone away? What about flu?

“So you see, we catch colds every year and it heals. That’s the way it will be with this COVID also, it will be with us for as long as we live. It’s foolishness to think that there will come a day when there will be no COVID-19, coronaviruses are found in dogs, cats, in bats and many animals and we live with them. So how we respond to the presence of this new [virus] is particularly important.” he said

“Let’s not threaten them with arrests like I heard [chief government spokesperson] Dora [Siliya] say the other day that they will arrest anyone with a claim of having a cure. Don’t do that! Actually, call them and ask what they have and subject that to scientific inquiries,” said Dr Banda.

He argued that Zambians were somehow shielded from contracting COVID-19 since much of the country’s population was around the age of 14 years and below.

“The fear created about COVID-19 in citizens is a greater enemy than the pandemic itself.
But this is why I am saying the President should be commended for easing the lockdown and for ensuring that the economy is gradually being reopened. People should go back to work, kids are just at home sitting and not everybody has a TV set, so this e-learning can’t work for every family. Statistics will show you that kids [rarely] get it (the coronavirus) and even if they get it, they hardly die,” Dr Banda said.

“50 per cent of Zambia’s population is either 14 years old or below, meaning therefore that by age alone, much of Zambia is shielded from COVID-19. So all kids should be in school because nothing will happen to them.

“The biggest problem we have now is not COVID-19, the biggest problem we have is fear, the fear which has been created by scientists on the continent or globally.So we must fight the fear, the fear is what is keeping us at home, the fear is causing our immune systems to weaken, the fear is creating disease. So that is what we should be fighting.” he said

Meanwhile, Dr Banda asked the government to work with local herbalists and scientists to find a remedy for Coronavirus and not just wait for the vaccine to come from the Western countries.

“I would also like to emphasise that COVID-19 is a new disease and we should come up with policy mechanisms to fight any more new infections. Let us investigate the herbalists that we have in the country, let’s equip them. There are remedies in our midst that can counter this particular problem.

“Let’s not threaten them with arrests like I heard [chief government spokesperson] Dora [Siliya] say the other day that they will arrest anyone with a claim of having a cure. Don’t do that! Actually, call them and ask what they have and subject that to scientific inquiries,” said Dr Banda.

“We need to understand that wherever people are, God has put whatever they need in them, so [for example] SADC should have an interest in what a member state has done, Madagascar there. They must investigate the remedy they’ve found and quickly make it available if it works on their citizens. We must not be waiting all the time for a solution to come from France, London or New York. We must create our own solutions as Africans.”

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) says empowering women and girls with life skills will help reduce cases of gender based violence (GBV) in Zambia.

UNFPA Gender Analyst Womba Mayondi notes that women and girls in the country need social protection as they are vulnerable and marginalized in society.

Ms. Mayondi said UNFPA, a UN lead agency advocates for the promoting of women and girls’ welfare has realized the need to work with government through the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Community Development and Social Welfare as well as other partners such as the Young Women Christian Association in order to respond and prevent cases of GBV and child abuses by physically and materially empowering them.

Ms. Mayondi said this when she handed over sanitary kits comprising reproductive products to 1,350 women and girls beneficiaries.

The donated items included a bucket, 2-metre chitenje material, sanitary towel, soap and some detergent pastes while Gwembe District Hospital benefited linen, gloves and an assortment of hand sanitizers in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ms. Mayondi also disclosed that UNFPA had so far trained over 100 personnel that included 37 GBV experts, 16 Protection Monitors, 13 Counselors, Community health workers among others.

Gwembe District Commissioner Timothy Siakaziba who graced the handover at Gwembe District hospital commended UNFPA for uplifting the lives of women and girls.

The DC said the donation is a step in the right direction for Zambia to achieve her sustainable development agenda on maternal and reproductive health.

Mr Siakaziba bemoaned the rising number of GBV cases in Gwembe that has made partnerships between government and UNFPA important, to addressing the vice.

Kaputa District has opened its first ever eye clinic at Kaputa District hospital with funding from Onesight, a non-governmental organization specialized in providing eye services.

And speaking during the launch of the clinic, Kaputa District Commission Ernest Bwalya expressed happiness that eye services have been brought closer to the people of Kaputa.

Mr. Bwalya said it is government’s policy to eliminate avoidable blindness in Zambia and has been doing everything possible to ensure that goal is achieved.

“We are building on recent achievements in eye healthcare, led by the government of the Republic of Zambia and its cooperating partners.” Mr. Bwalya said.

He thanked Onesight Zambia for the strides it was making to ensure that eye health is prioritized therefore supplementing government’s effort by helping setting up eye clinics throughout the country.

“we are all working to ensure that our citizens have access to sustainable eye care and that our people here in Kaputa have access to screening and treatment and that every school going child’s eyes by 2021 are preserved” he said.

And Onesight Zambia Country Manager Phales Mungule said her organization was pleased to collaborate with government in the delivery of affordable eye services in Zambia.

“In partnership with the ministry of health Onesight has established eye clinics like this one in 27 district hospitals and some of which are provincial hospitals” Ms. Mungule said.

Ms. Mungule also revealed that by the end of 2020, 38 eye clinics will be set and more until next year.

She said Onesight is committed to take eye care services in far to reach places like Kaputa so as to make eye health services closer and affordable to people.

Meanwhile Kaputa District Health Director Dr. Lushiku Banangu said the establishment of the eye clinic will improve service delivery to the people of Kaputa who previously had to travel to other districts to access eye health services.

“We are calling ourselves lucky as people of Kaputa because it is not common to find specialized eye care clinics at first level hospitals like the one we have launched yesterday,” Dr. Lushiku said.

The Netherlands has given 18 million Euros to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) for continued implementation of the Sexual Reproductive Health Rights and HIV activities in six countries, including Zambia.

The money has been provided under the “SRHR-HIV Knows No Boundary” project that IOM is implementing in Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland.

International Organisation for Migration Chief of Mission in Zambia Nomagugu Ncube has confirmed the funding which is for five-year running from 2021 to 2026.

She said the money will be used to promote sexual reproductive health rights of adolescents and young people and vulnerable groups like migrant sex workers in the six countries

Ms Ncube was speaking on the sideline of a two-day Sexual Reproductive Health Rights and HIV Knows No Border 3rd Tripartite Cross Border virtual meeting for Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique.

“The project is about demand creation, capacitating the beneficiaries who are migrant sex workers and adolescents and young people in the migration affected corridor to demand and utilize sexual and reproductive health and HIV services and to demand and enjoy their rights,” she said.

She mentioned that another aspect of the project around creating an enabling environment for the fully enjoyment of sexual and reproductive health rights, focusing on issues of policy and challenging social and cultural norms that may militate against enjoying those rights.

In Zambia the project will be implemented in the Eastern Province covering Chipata, Katete and Chadiza Districts which form a corridor for migration.

And Ms Ncube said migration is a key social determinant of health that government must prioritized in their health plans.

“What needs to be emphasized is that migration is a phenomenon that we all have to live with and is a key social determinant of health and therefore it would be prudent for stakeholders planning for health and other social services to integrate migration in the planning,” she said.

Meanwhile Ministry of Health spokesperson Abel Kabalo has said tripartite collaborations on health with neighbouring countries is important in stopping the spread of infectious diseases.

“What we have resolved is to maintain public health security and you can only achieve that especially when you do the collaboration with your neighbouring countries, you make your borders not porous-disease proof in terms of transmission,” he explained.

Dr Kabalo also said that Zambia has become a role model in health intelligence surveillance following the creation of the National Health Intelligence Institute.

“Zimbabwe came here to learn and Malawi came actually here in Zambia to learn as to how they should go about that. As I am speaking right now we are giving them technical support on how they should run their intelligence wings in terms of disease prevention and control,” Dr Kabalo said.