Government has dispatched a team of experts from the Zambia National Public Health Institute (ZNPHI) to conduct COVID-19 mass screening in the border town of Nakonde, Minister of Health Chitalu Chilufya has disclosed.
Dr. Chilufya said following the two COVID-19 positive people who entered the country through Nakonde, government has decided to send experts to conduct mass screening in the border town to ensure people who might have come in contact with the couple are screened.
He said the mass screening in Nakonde is necessary because the neighbouring Tanzania has also recorded a number of COVID-19 cases.
The Minister of Health said the Zambian government has since engaged its Tanzanian counterpart to strengthen cross border collaboration in view of the outbreak of the pandemic in the two countries.
He said the contacts of the Chingola couple which tested positive after returning from Tanzania are being traced and screened for the disease adding that contact tracing is still ongoing.
Dr. Chilufya was speaking to journalists at Ndeke House in Lusaka today during the daily COVID-19 updates.
The Minister further disclosed that the country has recorded two new cases of COVID-19 in last 24 hours, bringing the total number of cases to 89.
He clarified that the cumulative number of COVID-19 cases in Zambia has gone to 89 from 88 after adding two new cases because one of those reported recently from the Copperbelt was not a new case but a repeated test.
This means that Copperbelt remain with only four cases of COVID-19 instead of five because of the error in tallying of the cases.
He said mass screening and targeted screening of covid-19 in Lusaka will continue.
He has since called on the public to adhere to the health guidelines as announced by government.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Health has called on the members of the public to adjust their lifestyle to make the health guidelines part of their daily routine because the COVID-19 pandemic was likely to be around for a long period of time.
Dr. Chilufya said members of the public should always mask up and observe social distance to prevent themselves from contracting or transmitting the deadly disease which is likely take long to be eliminated in the country.
He said the only effective way to prevent catching the deadly pandemic is to mask up and keep a distance from each other.
Responding to questions from journalists who wanted to know if anyone has come up with any COVID-19 drug for trial like it was happening in Madagascar, Dr. Chilufya stated that Zambia has not yet found any evidence based remedy to the pandemic.
He said the Ministry of Health is open for anyone who has a cure to present his medicine to be tested.
The African continent has recorded about 32,657 cases with 1,427 death as of today while the global figure of cases has gone to 3,017,766 with 207,722 deaths.
The whole operation is headed by one corrupt man Chilufya from Lusaka everything is centralized he is in charge of everything receiving donations and dispersing funds.
Is there no picture of Nakonde? Zambian Citizen you are well travelled within our country’s borders avail them with a photo…
I think we have terrible minister of health who deserves to be fired, all border posts must have been on high alert equipped with health experts with their testing equipments by now. Wgat were they waiting for?
Too little, too late.
Chirundu boader should be on high alert due to cases in neighbourin zimbabwe.
I heard that Tanzania is facing a serious crisis with numbers of deaths rising each day and this is why they are so concerned so as to prevent cross border movement of the disease.
We as a people are so stubborn, some 1diots were even saying that black people cant catch the disease, look at black Americans who are dying at the highest rate in USA. When this disease begins to hit us which it will as the window period elapses we will be overwhelmed. Best solution secure your family food basket and stay home for the next 1 month minimum, maximum 3 months.
The road was worked on in nkonde