Health Minister Dr Chitalu Chilufya has announced that the number of people that have died of Cholera since the outbreak was recorded has reached 58 ever since the disease broke out on October 6, 2017.
And government has disclosed some funds collected from Toll gates will be diverted to the fight against Cholera.
Briefing the media in Lusaka on Sunday morning, Dr Chilufya revealed that Cholera cases have increased from the 2,426 reported yesterday to 2,451 today.
Dr Chilufya said there were three were BIDs with one from Chelstone, another 1 in Kanyama and 1 in Chipata Compound.
And Dr Chilufya has announced that all bars and clubs will open between 11 Hours and 19 Hours to avoid cross contamination
Dr Chilufya said outside those hours, consumption is restricted to homes
He also announced that a curfew has been imposed on Kanyama from 18 Hours to 06 Hours for a period of seven days.
Dr Chilufya said no trade and movements of people will be allowed during the curfew to allow the defence forces to work on the situation.
Dr Chilufya also declared Chinika market in Lusaka illegal and asked traders asked to vacate the place.
He also explained that the eight Chinese that were admitted in hospital were admitted for diarrhea, food poisoning and not cholera.
He said from today, Kanyama residents should consume water from the tanks put by government and not from shallow wells.
Dr Chilufya said out of 900 water samples from Wells in Kanyama, more than 800 tested positives or evidence of contamination.
He said almost all food from the streets in Kanyama such as Mangoes, Fish and Meat have tested positive.
Dr Chilufya said pit latrines have continued to be treated by healthy workers and that more than 2,000 water wells will be buried in Kanyama adding that Water from Kanyama Wells should not be used even for washing.
He said the following companies have being closed for contributing to the spread of Cholera ( Pick and Pay woodlands, Choppies Supermarket in Matero, SPAR Mumbwa road, Debonairs Levy Junction, Shoprite Twin Palm, Davies Supply Woodland Extension, Steven Mwansa Meat Supply in Missis compound, Tendai Butchery in Kuku compound,Banda Butchery in Missis compound, New Hope Grocery in Kuku compound, Kankoyo Breweries, Mahock restraunt in Kabulonga, Asian Party Levy Mall, Wimpy Levy Mall, Mika convention Centre and Zambeef Kabwata.
Dr Chilufya said the following have be re-opened after they met the recommendations, Hungry lion Kulima tower, Hungry Lion Society Park, Kumushi restraint in the Showground, KUM and ET takeaway down and ZAZA takeaway freedom way.
And Deputy Minister in the Vice President’s office Sylvia Chalikosa told the same media briefing that government will divert some funds collected from Toll gates will to the fight
Please close all those roadside/market restaurants where food handlers don’t access to clean sanitation for them to wash their hands. Ecoli is all over Lusaka. Hell the whole Dam.n city needs to shut down!
They should also make sure that traders/vendors really adhere to the restrictions during the curfew hours and the people refrain from buying their products. I saw a footage on FB the other day showing vendors returning to sell food in the streets as soon as military personnel had vacated from the scene. This is not only gross irresponsibility but a serious offence which should be punishable.
Also stop Ukunyela panse. Stop building houses without indoor plumping. It’s lawless. Zambians are busy slandering each on Facebook instead of getting into a collective effort to combat cholera. Such disoriented people!
Too little too late. Lives have already been lost. Too many families have been affected, and the Lusaka economy is bleeding. It’s been well known that the issue of residents having to take care of their own sewerage disposal and water supply would be disastrous. Meanwood, Bonaventure and many new neighborhoods aren’t connected to the main supply lines. Shanty compounds are still expanding uncontrollably where residents dig latrines for their sewerage disposal. This problem will never go away until a lasting solution is found. Lusaka is doomed.
Cholera has been a recurrent disease since time immemorial. Surely something could have been done about it and put an end to this shame. What do the so-called leaders do in those high offices if they can’t even find a solution to a simple problem? Cholera is a consequence of filth and Lusaka, where the president of the republic and foreign diplomats live could at least be kept clean. This one country alone has the tags of 3RD HUNGRIEST and the MOST FILTHY in the world. This means the leadership does not have what it takes to be in-charge.
Yaba. Artificial cholera. Any recommendations by the Israelis so far. Have they finished their bioweapon experiment?
OK seriously we must transform our behaviours. Nomba you’re even diverting funds from roads to cholera, nauseating country…
Ifiko fye. Ba local government ati Shani, waste management going forward? CLUELESS!!!
Things have halted to a stand still in Zambia, be it political, economic, healthcare, agriculture etc..etc. The centre has field to hold. Zambia is now a Banana Republic. Through Dr Chilufya, I congratulate President Lungu by coming up with cleaning exercise using the military. I urge you Dr Chilufya to go a step further by destroying all the tuntembas and those make shift wood tables and burn them completely to clean the Lusaka, Ndola, Kitwe, Livingstone and other big towns’ CBDs.
If only Edgar Cholera Lungu (ECL) had spent more time in ZAMBIA as opposed to unnecessary foreign trips, some of the monies that have been wasted on these trips could have been pumped in the Water and Sanitation sectors.
But why all these gatherings, is it allowances? What if only working minister remaining get sick?
Make announcements on TV and radio.
Sell or completely stop buying Luxury SUVs and use that money to construct proper drainages and rubbish collection facilities, we need long term goals not short term! In military language we say Strategic and not Tactical plans of action.
I m really angry with Lungu for his ineptitude and shambolic way he is running my once lovely country. His poor leadership skills plus corruption continues to kill people with disease and violence. He has stolen all the money meant for curbing epidemics like cholera.
Cholera is Lungu and PF s making! PF was told to clean up the street vending act in major towns but refused to appease the vendors in exchange for votes.
To make matters worse, PF burnt the markets and lied to people that they will rebuild the market, unfortunately the plans been kicked in the long the grass. So people have no where to conduct their business apart from the streets. Surely how can PF fail to allocate a place where all the vending can take safely?
Lungu s PF has also failed to ensure that all the…
Lungu s PF has also failed to ensure that all the residents of the cities have clean water. Dirty contaminated water is one major cause of cholera.
PF under Lungu is a death messenger no doubt about that! And Zambia under Lungu is a death camp!
Cholera is a clear sign of Lungu s failed leadership and rampant corruption.
LUNGU must go and should have gone like yesterday!
If Zambians don’t get rid of Lungu, they will soon face travel bans in foreign countries.
LUNGU MUST GO HE HAS FAILED.
Poor leadership at ministry of health and Lusaka City Council. Are hospitals even safe? The sanitation in Lusaka is deplorable. Nil waste disposal over flowing sewers etc. This would not have happened under Kasonde and Chikusu. Public health response is disorganized and ineffective. Basic hygiene is not being maintained. Experts in sanitation are abroad, deceased or retired.
Too little too late. Lives have already been lost. Too many families have been affected, and the Lusaka economy is bleeding. It’s been well known that the issue of residents having to take care of their own sewerage disposal and water supply would be disastrous. Meanwood, Bonaventure and many new neighborhoods aren’t connected to the main supply lines. Shanty compounds are still expanding uncontrollably where residents dig latrines for their sewerage disposal. This problem will never go away until a lasting solution is found. Lusaka is doomed
Keep your hands off the Road Fund!
Bad precedent being set here. Next time the same funds will be used for some other emergency not related to road development and maintainance. How much more will motorists be taxed?
They will plunder the road fund terribly now. They will even pay the Israelis from the same.
It will be another fire tender, ambulance and Mikula trade
Simply look at that picture…those people can not contain or manage anything apart from profiting from disaster like during load-shedding!!
I see you’re back from the cholera treatment centre in Chilanga but they still failed to treat your verbal diarreah.
You are such a pathetic ball of negative energy you magot
Atheist wanna be
Kudos you dingbat, Cholera has been around since October, the only reason that lazy corrupt thing in State House came out of his hiding… is to avoid answering questions about the Mukula Tree debacle. If you Dumbells tackled this issue back in 2012 we wouldn’t be in this filthy mess …always waiting for a problem to blow out of proportion then throw taxpayers money at it.
Most of the companies closed on the ground of ‘contributing to the spread of cholera’, may actually just be ‘victims’ themselves. Poorly treated water or contamination from bad sewer systems are the main conduits for cholera. Further, in an epidemic, it is crucial to treat people quickly. Less than 1% of people infected die when treatment is prompt. Zambia is already way over that threshold.
Ordinarily, the Public Health department should be within the councils. There is a higher responsibility for this mess for the Ministry of Local government than Ministry of Health. Unless in Zambia we are saying Public Health is under Ministry of Health? The local govt. and Public Health dept. should be responsible for cleanliness, sanitation and disease surveillance. Much of the health ministry’s work should be medical institutions, drugs, equipment and treatment.
Am worried The money from toll gates will soon find its way in Dr Chilufya’s pockets
Actually, the money from the tolls is going to pay for Lungus next trip to stay in five stars hotels so that he does not get Cholera.
Ordinary Zambians will have to continue using put latrines and getting water from shallow wells because all the money that was borrowed has been STOLEN by PF!
Worried too!!!
All shops during stated operating hours must have antibacterial chemicals on entry points, sales personnel to wear surgical groves before touching money because money can be the source of cholera.
Thank you. This is already happening at PNP Garden City, Shoprite Woodlands etc
And how many city & public health officials have resigned or be terminated since the cholera outbreak for neglect? We want numbers on job casualties too not just deaths.
No political will. Therefore no logistical support. Politicians were busy flying around to attend inaugurations and making money through fire tenders and Mikula firewoods
The cholera issues is just a tip of the iceberg to many disaster yet to befall the country. You cannot have so much lawlessness in the country and expect sanity. There are a bunch of eating places without proper sanitation and a lot of housing compounds lacking decent sanitation. One wonder if there is any law to prevent building anywhere and anyhow. Markets and bus stops are places which are busy and are the dirtiest and cholera prone. Those must be constantly checked and insure they meet the highest sanitation standards
This is why this country cannot develop. You can’t open bars at 11 hrs and expect people to be productive. Countries such as Tanzania, Botswana and even Malawi have laws that only allow bars to operate from 18 hrs. Why not let bar owners to operate from 18 hrs to 22 hrs. Please PF don’t allow your cadres (Street vendors) to come to the streets again. For the first time in 25 years there is sanity in the central business district of Lusaka.
Seeing Lusaka now is like going back in time to the eighties when there was no street vending and cholera.
PF have neither the manpower nor brain capacity to tackle street vending ….no sooner the Army leave the street vendors will be back.
Botswana bars open 11hrs to 23hrs. Sunday 14hrs to 22hrs. Do not tell lies.
STATE HOUSE SHALL CLOSE FOR CONTRIBUTING CHOLERA ALSO. THEN UPND SECRETARIAT NEEDS TO CLOSE TOO. THE NUMBER OF NEW CASES IS REDUCING WHICH IS ENCOURAGING THUMBS UP TO PRESIDENTIAL INITIATIVE
Honestly speaking, how do you close trade and business as well as chirches and allow bars to be open? I thought bars and clubs pose more danger to cholera bearing in mind the hygiene of most the bars and clubs?
Is it because most of our minsters are patrons of these bars? Are you going to allow five (5) people per bar/night club? Be consistent with the implementation of your rules and regulations
PF’s politically motivated move to allow street vendors everywhere has backfired .Your vote harvester has turned into cholera death agent.
Please leave the toll fees alone.
PF are a bunch of reckless morons …that money has already been misappropriated.
For as long as you have shi.t from unlined pit latrines all around lusaka leaking into the water table and underground streams contamination of the water table and aquifers of lusaka will continue……
The most viable and easy solution is to treat all consumed water with ultraviolet light, a very cheap and effective solution.
An UV light bulb can be bought for as little as $2.00.
If GRZ had any brains they would turn this tradegy into a positive by establishing and encouraging water treatment manufactruing plants….
A lot of criticism and unnecessary politicking
Cholera is present almost every year and we have never lambasted previous governments for it.
HATS OFF to ECL and company. You have come out with guns blazing and just continue with it.
Now that things like illegal food vending, contaminated wells etc are being brought forward, please dont back off.
FINISH IT and set a good standard for the future !
For now, well done, and dont let jealous detractors pull you down. They will applaud only your failures, never your successes.
Spaka great comment.
Around kanyama during rainy season we can see the high water table between the dug out rocky areas.
Of course the water table reaches pit latrines which are not lined or concreted.
Kanyama residents only have water from these wells and so it is not surprising that almost 90% of wells tested positive.
Only solution is to pipe in water from further afield. Its not practical to redo all the toilets, so only solution would be water from kafue river or from boreholes where there are no human settlements nearby
Suprisingly enough, no one resigns or gets fired. Violence in Namwala got a Commission of Enquiry but here were people are dying, economy affected all we get is silence!
FILTHY CHRISTIAN NATION
Sounds like they are now trumping on people’s constitutional rights. These policies are usually for containing violence, not containing cholera. How is evening travel got to do with cholera as opposed to day travel? And while you are destroying people’s water wells, ensure you connect them to the running water for free. They are going to make the situation worse with some of these measures.
Do they have mobile toilets yet? Clean water for these people? Learn from Liberia how they contained a more dangerous Ebola outbreak.
If this doesn’t stop all the incompetence, looting and stealing of public resources I don’t know what will. Cholera may as well be the outbreak we had to have to expose these thieves’ incompetence.
Allocation of funds should be accordance with the budget…is the government saying there were no funds allocated for emergencies. This government must not be playing with our money as if it is a donation to them.
Its a bit too late for that when these dumbbells have already put us in more than £17 billion in debt.
Folks if there are people from the council reading positive contribution here, please stop issuing plots without drainage and sewerage infrastructure in place. That’s is criminal. Has our country completely lost basic service delivery?
It had to take USAID Millennium funds to bring tap water to Meanwood…LCC had been playing lip service for donkey years ….Council’s Land Planning is non existent just as the Public Health Dept was only now do you see them.
..closure of churches against opening of bars….from the economical point of view…bars will generate funds for the govt to continue fighting Cholera while Churches wont…there is so much hand shake at church compared to bars…bars usually are patronised with few people during the day…11hrs to 19hrs while a church gathers quite a numbers of people at given time…no children in bars while we have children (who are very vulnerable )at church…..got it…
….that’s a 5yrs olds kind of thinking to say since churches are closed then bars should also close ..NO
..if it was other way round, bars could not have complained….Viva breweries
Its ironic as these dumb fooooools like stating that they are a Christian Nation and holding National Days of Prayers!!
Ba LT, Deputy Minister in the Office Of The Vice President? Since when did the Deputy Ministers return to the block?
“Deputy Minister in the Vice President’s office Sylvia Chalikosa”
I thought the position of Deputy Minister was abolished pursuant to the amended Constitution?
More comments please, I’m in bed reading them…
We should all be united to fight this evil which could just mutate into something else. Dr. Chilufya & others sacrificing their confort for our sake should be hailed as heroes & not ridiculed. Let us do the Work first & Politic later. There will be enough time for Isambo lya cholera. I don’t think that funds diverted from roads toll will be misused. The Auditor General’s office & other key players should be involved from inception & not left to do fire fighting later.
This thing is so serious, I’ve even rejected the Popcorns passed on to me. They’ve been reserved for other movies. Cheers later, once the fight is over. Meanwhile, the bars & night clubs should also be closed. People can buy the beers & consume from their homes. I’m sure that a lot of house Wives agree with me, here.
To our Donor Friends, this is a just cause for you to help, like you do in cases of Tsunami, Earth Quakes etc. We should not sit & watch the problem grow exponentially. Let’s avoid a snow ball effect. It’s unjust to watch us divert funds from other critical areas when you have enough money to spend in outer space. What if Cholera catches up with you in Mars.
For along time people must have been dying of cholera country wide each and we did not know it; now we know it because WHO have come in; Lungu and PF are to blame; but they should ban street vending country wide forever;
I would love to help my country but people there do not want to help themselves. Donors donors when are you going to be fking donors yourselves!!