Zambia did not record any positive COVID-19 case out of the 226 tests conducted in the last 24 yours, health minister Dr. Chitalu Chilufya has said.
Dr. Chilufya has also disclosed that 5 more patients have been discharged bringing the cumulative number of cases to 84, 3 deaths, 42 recoveries with active cases standing at 39.
Speaking at the latest COVID-19 update,Dr Chilufya said cumulatively a total of 4,963 tests have been conducted with 2,912 completing the 14 days quarantine.
Dr. Chilufya said there is, therefore, need to adhere to the given guidelines subject to certification by public officials failure to which public events such as church gatherings will not be allowed.
He said the guidance given by the President was very clear on the need to exercise strict social distancing as he announced that a scalable approach will be applied depending on how the pandemic evolves.
“It’s important to act in solidarity with your families and the country to avoid unnecessary travels in order to avoid community spread” he emphasized.
He said determining the extent of the diseases is a key metric in determining strategies of reopening sectors of the economy.
On the ongoing mass screening, Dr. Chilufya said 6 points in Makeni have since been set up for the screening and said many other parts in Lusaka will be screened to eliminate community spread.
Dr. Chilufya also thanked Emmasdale and Chaisa residents for complying with health authorities during the massive screening and encouraged others to emulate such patriotism in order to effectively conduct the exercise.
On the recruitment of health officials, Dr. Chilufya said over 500 health officials have been recruited in the ongoing exercise to ensure that the directive by President Edgar Lungu is archived.
And finance minister Dr. Bwalya Ng’andu who was speaking at the same event said the effects of the COVID-19 are severe on the economy.
He cited the tourism and transport sectors as being severely affected and said measures to sustain the business is paramount in making sure that the economy remains viable to meet various economic obligations.
Dr. Ng’andu said there is a need now to adapt to the situation while finding solutions carefully both immediate and long term to keep the economy running amidst the Coronavirus pandemic.
He has appealed to sector players to begin to think seriously about how the country’s economy can be sustained at various levels in a multisectoral approach.
Kabiyo ko!! Your actions leaves much to be disered, its politics as usual. Tamuli serious naba boss bone iwe!!
Kalikeka, These guys don’t have money, Balilya ulipiya. Its Good news on the other hand with 226 tests with Zero but truly doesn’t make sense for an imb3c1le like KZ to be proud and insult people in diaspora all the time. I know some provinces (state) here with a population of 7M are doing 7500 tests a day an find 4 positive and that brain dead dude is happy to celebrate. Am happy with what ever little resource MOH is working with and results but more needs to be done. Hope they use the 10m from USA wisely
This is quite misleading the number of tests is lower than anticipated. This is stage managed to comfort us but the disease is spreading.
Zambia should be conducting 5000 tests per day coz those 226 are woefully low for a country of 17m people.
This is what we needed to hear after a series of infections in the country. Chances are that there are a number of hidden (untested) cases but the good thing is that many will recover even without undergoing any tests. Statistically, 1 in 4 infected people show no symptoms at all, making it hard for authorities to determine the exact number of cases since people who feel healthy will not go for testing.
We appreciate all the efforts. Stay safe everyone and have yourselves a good weekend! Don’t worry, be happy!
Some people like sitting on the fence!
No wonder Jay Jay tears into them frequently.
In the meantime, donations made to fight corona are being sold on Facebook by the daughter of Chilufya the thief, and other PF cadres.
Citizens, just protect yourselves. No one else will do that for you.
Do not be fooled that this battle has been won coz it has not even started yet!
Stay blessed my beautiful country.
The lies continue by Chilufya…
Nine Chale, the Germany Zambisto, you slowly losing your initial great judgement of things we know you for on this platform I think. Please be objective, there is surely something amiss on the part of the Zambian authorities!! They can do better!!
Nine Chale get enough sleep and eat healthy diet, above all try Try Nootropics
Nine Chale take a shower at least once a day if you cant afford twice, Mindestens einmal am Tag duschen.
“On the recruitment of health officials, Dr. Chilufya said over 500 health officials have been recruited in the ongoing exercise to ensure that the directive by President Edgar Lungu is archived.”
Are these the health workers whom “Founding Father Mr Michael Chilufya Sata sacked? Indeed What goes up must come down.
@Prolific Was soll das? Was hat es denn mit Duschen zu tun??”
@Kalikeka of course there’s always room for improvement but given the limited resources we have and the magnitude of the challenge, I think we have done well so far. We are not as hopeless as some people would want us to believe. They’re lurking like vultures, only waiting to see us die in millions so that they can finally switch their cameras to Africa – but somehow, God said: “not this time!”. We must stand strong and keep our positivity because that’s what will keeps us going when all odds are against us. It shall be well.
Economical with the truth.
Russia was doing the same. Now they have 74,500 corona virus cases.
I think Nine Chale you should just go and drink some German Wheat Beer in your backyard or teach your misus how to cook Nshima.
After that terrible boring President ‘s speech, people will not trust anything coming out of that Lusaka.
Close that Lusaka, close it!!!
226 a day? Laboratary confimed or number of total tests? Anyone with information help mean understand this.
@ Tarino how did you know that’s my favorite? German “Weizen” goes down nicely on a sunny day like this. Just picked some organic veggies from my backyard but I would rather do the nshima myself.. so much on that subject. We all need to find something else to do now. Focussing on Corona news 24/7 is not good for our mental well-being. Life must go on.
After yesterdays debacle you would be forgiven to doubt the no infections, there is a good incentive not to give true position, in order to minimise the huge embarrassment on hamble.
An impotant message from my team:
ANOTHER HIGHWAY MIDNIGHT OPERATION
We have to stop the virus from moving. We have to take all necessary steps to win this war.
Around midnight we set up an inspection point at Kaluba Toll Plaza to inspect compliance levels among travelers and ensuring that our front line workers are checking if people are wearing masks and sanitizing. Those without masks were helped with some free masks and allowed to proceed.
Together we can fight Covid-19. Excellent news.
Giood news but no time to drop your guard….mysterious corona19 is lingering around.
nine chale Sie verlieren Ihr kritisches Denken, Dusche hilft, richtig zu denken
Read, read, read and form your own opinion…sample for Zambia is not scientific and has huge margin of error, NO CI applicable…sad indeed…
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It also depends in which areas the tests were conducted. Some areas are relatively safe and therefore even if you do a 1000 tests in that particular area they will come out negative. The tests should be spread over different areas to get a true picture
Ulabeja!
You have missed the cases because you are doing too few tests!
You cannot serve two masters, scaling up testing and Covid donations! Focus on scaling up testing capacity and let Bwalya Ngandu manage donations because that is his job! No more blank cheques for MOH as that creates loopholes for pilfering!
You need to understand this. They not just testing anyone they meet. That will be wasting resources looking at our country. But they go for the suspected ones. Eg..they find you with infected.. they ask you the people you have in contact with for the last 7 days then they trace them at test them
A quantitative analysis will make more sense as the stats seem to be non factual.
a). How many people out of 17 million population have been tested so far
b). How many tests in each province/district are done per day and where the sample being captured
Until the nation gets answers to the above questions, the whole exercise and announcements are a mockery and disrespectful to the Zambian residents.
God bless the suffering Zambians.
He tests 300 people today sends the samples for tests to laboratory which takes 48 -72 hours for results to come back, then tomorrow he will comeback and say zero new cases recorded, in 48 hours he will come back and say oh 5 new cases recorded….Lazy Lungu will continue to embarrassed by these politicians like deceitful Chilufya he keeps as his advisors, let professionals handle this matter.
From the posting on this site,you might think everything the GRZ is doing is in vain. I don’t believe so myself.
Zambia’s testing capacity is very limited when compared to the developed countries. However , a donation of $10 million can make a significant difference and could allow for much more testing in hotspots. Its just prudent application of the monies that is problematic.