Zambia has recorded 9 new COVID-19 cases out of the 307 tests conducted in the last 24 hours bringing the cumulative total to 106, Health Minister Dr. Chitalu Chilufya has said.
Speaking during the latest COVID-19 update, Dr. Chilufya has said the cases involve 3 truck drivers, an Asian and the rest are from the mass screening.
“The cases involve 3 truck drivers and one national from Asia who recently came into the country as a consultant for work. The remaining cases include contacts of cases we have reported before from Chawama Chipata and Kanyama and also from the community screening and targeted testing that we are doing while one is from health care facility-based surveillance” Dr. Chilufya disclosed.
And Dr. Chilufya has disclosed that the 10-year-old COVID-19 patient of Kabwe has been discharged after she tested negative twice, bringing the total number of recoveries to 55 while 48 are active cases and 3 deaths.
The minister has emphasized the need to try and avoid new infections by adhering to all the necessary measures to contain the pandemic.
He said aggressive contact tracing is underway in various parts of the country and said the exercise will be escalated to find as many contacts as possible to avoid new human to human transmission.
Dr. Chilufya named Rhodespark as the next target in Lusaka to undergo massive screening and said sensitization and disinfection of public places will equally continue.
Dr. Chilufya assured that the government under the watchful eye of President Edgar Lungu is ensuring that the economy is running amidst a robust COVID-19 preventive strategy.
“Let’s stay home, let be safe, let’s avoid non-essential travels and avoid public gatherings. Should you have any public gatherings, make sure you meet all the set standards” he said and called for collective responsibility and patriotism to effectively fight COVID-19.
What other work does this man do?, it appears he had nothing to do as minister of health before Covid-19. His fixation on coronavirus to the exclusion of his normal job makes him false to what he is presenting to the general public.
Is that all you can say? Are you on planet earth?
A man from Asia, are you people kidding? Are you not importing covid-19 from high risk countries? Why this PF government still allowing people from abroad? PF is a joke! Meanwhile PF must go!
What is worrying is that we still don’t seem to have a grip on imported cases. We’re not serious if we can have a job-seeking Asian consultant crossing into our borders under these circumstances. Otherwise, I’m still eagerly waiting to hear when we are expected to reach a peak.
@1 Muna
Not only Bandit Chitalu Chilufya even the bandit President Lungu and his entire PF bandit cabinet….what have they been doing since 2011 just stealing tax payers money…it all started with Sata and meanwhile COVID has finally arrived in Zambia after all these weeks of giving false data
‘The government under the watchful eye of President Edgar Lungu ‘. What watchful eye of an incompetent president? You can’t contain this virus without putting in place travel restrictions. You’re jokers! Meanwhile PF must go!
Really laughable …if it was a Pakistani you say it even give the town in Pakistan he visited but since its his paymasters here he says “Asian man” come on Chilufya Asia is too vague…are you afraid of mentioning China. This what happens when you sell a country.
He has continued cooking his data alone.
The chap has announced about 6 cases in the last seven days from either truck drivers or people who have flown in and his boss still carries on as normal ….this is why there is truth to the conspiracy of these morons wanting this virus to spread so they can get more funding and postponed elections. These thieves are capable of anything look at the gassing issue …its like it never happened.
We are hitting a cliff with this PF government and nothing will ever work for this country and we must recorrect our mistakes we made. These are unpatriotic Zambians, all they are interested is to steal and fill up their bellies. I pray that corona virus spare them too because they must answer to their future chargrs against them. Not forgetting Alexander Chikwanda the master borrower! Good night folks!
With every briefing it is becoming clearer how much of a tight trip grip there is on the flow of information relating to covid-19…
Two days ago a Kenyan man tested positive for covid-19 in the Katanga region of DRC and that triggered a lockdown in the province. His travel route was Kenya -> Tanzania -> Zambia and finally DRC via Kasumbalesa. Why has this not been reported here and this man’s case been followed up?
I recommend We scale up the number of tests in a day from 300 to 2000.
No deaths recorded we thank God. The diasporans are steaming with anger. Kaya uko ku diaspora the death rate. More evil you throw our way the more is deflected back to your countries. Zambia is a Christian nation for a reason. Kaya uko ku upnd nama freemason. Kz
This is not time ukulaifyonono as superman Ba Chilufya as aspiring PF President.
It is time to handover to military to cleanup Lusaka…. Close the country, shut it, let get serious and control the virus.
Up the game mr chilufya, the other day you promised us 2000 tests otherwise you are doing a good job.
Why in God’s name are we still allowing people from COVID-19 hot spots in Asia (China) into Zambia? This is ridiculous! This battle ain’t gonna be won if you keep importing the virus into the country. Is the consultancy this Asian person providing concern issues of life and death that he couldn’t wait? Come on folks, get serious!
And are these truck drivers Zambians or foreigners and from which countries? I thought all countries around Zambia, except maybe Tanzania, have closed their borders. So where are these truckers coming from? Are they Tanzanians? If so why are we allowing them in when we know Magufuli (their President) has refused to implement even a minimal amount of measures to contain this virus in his country? I am sure Zambia can demand that foreign truckers drop their…
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cargo (trailers) at the border and Zambian truckers haul the cargo the rest of the way into the country.
Such a simple and reasonable measure would greatly cartel the number of imported cases through this channel. And I don’t think taking such a measure would bring international Commerce to a complete standstill. Nonetheless, it would greatly compliment your efforts in this fight until such a time that you have a very good understanding of the extent of the infection in the country and enough mitigation measures (other than just taking someone’s body temperature) are deployed at all border entry points.
Some countries can be mentioned, why?
When the issue of opening Churches was challenged, it was deemed as an anti-PF move. Fortunately, the move is now being justified as we have seen the number of new cases increasing. ECL should thank God for this because the blame was going to be on him.
Looking at the Zambian situation, lockdown can be avoided if only people could adhere to the preventive measures against Covid 19. Unfortunately, many people are not wearing must and those wearing them are most of the time only covering their chins.
We need Law Enforcing agents to be making patrol just like that time for Cholera outbreak. But no brutalizing citizens.
is the Minister so scared of China? why no just say a consultant from China ?
Oh ok so this is where this useless excuse of a man calling himself tarino here is hiding. Iwe ka chimuka, you owe me money! You have even decided to block my number. Is this how you treat women? Please contact me and give me what you owe me before I reveal alot more about who you really are.
Now twafika pali na Mutale sunshila impapa uli namunyina ashale. Reality gheck. Stay home
We have known that borders have been porous in this fight from the beginning. Instead of mentioning the ethnicities or countries where people infected herald from, it’s more important to tackle COVID-19 more robustly. I don’t see the point of saying an ‘Asian’ or Pakistani person – this is a way of indirectly apportioning blame rather than going all out to implement more effective measures. It also only instigates hate and stigmatizing behaviours against particular people. We may even have a situation where we may find we are more resilient to the virus – but instead of taking advantage, we seem to be dawdling about and taking unhelpful risks that may then allow more adverse results. The response is uncoordinated. Yesterday it was screening in Kamwala next it’s Rhodes Park – what…
…. informs this? The testing numbers are low in spite of the continued promises of more testing. Do we have enough tests? Do we have the capacity to test broadly? We must be honest first of all and then work from there.
Really laughable…look at Yambayamba that’s when he is waking up …when we stating 2 weeks ago he was telling us to calm down.
I think this PF government will start taking this seriously from now on.
They might scale up testing to 301 per day.
They might also declare 7 days of national prayers.
Our hopes, without us sleeping on the job as is currently, may lie in the fact that Africa is not as connected to the rest of the world, (only a 5% tourism share for example) has a much younger population and the climate may be a factor. My hypothesis, which may be wrong but which I would rather African scientists take up, is that our encounters with the malarias and the development of some forms of immunities to some pathogens over time, could be our saviour, thus ending up with much lesser fatalities. At the same time this can only be ensured and sustained by employing the right measures NOW, and not dawdling about.
Iwe chimuka aka tarino you have the guts to ignore me after borrowing money from me and now failing to pay. Do you use women like that ?
After crying like a little baby in bed you are now blocking my calls. Chimuka aka tarino give me back my money or I start sending pictures of you to everyone
Ba tata wesu….. awe manje aya amalyashi ayabulwele yatampa ukuba boring….. kabufi katampa ukuba ubulwele nga corona ine muli baimwe tata….. there’s no way corona positive(+) pipo are increasingly almost every update death yaliba pamopene (3 deaths) & recoveries ukupola abantu balepola but tamwatulanga napo olo umofye ati uyu ali na corona but alipola….. I remember wen we had cholera outbreak mwaletulanga some of the pipo who where recovering from the disease but why kuli corona kwena tamuletulanga abo abalepola instead muletubepafye nama figures fye? And again mwatampako ukwangala nechalo nafuti bkoz if truly this virus was very serious muchalo chesu ngafilya tumona abanensu mufyalo fimbi balefwa ngenkoko…… Tata this time teti mungasuminisha persons coming from highly risked…
@Tarino (a.k.a Jay Jay), I told you to calm down only a few days ago, so what two weeks are you talking about? And yes you should calm down because you like ” uku bwata bwata” (talking nonsense) without a shred of evidence to support your conspiracy theories.
If we were to believe your DEVILISH predictions, half of Zambia’s population would be infected with this virus by now, and probably thousands dead. However that’s not the case. Although numbers are sadly going up, it is at a much lower rate than some of you sadists wished. And if you are not preaching DOOM and GLOOM about your country, you are predictably off on some other conspiracy cr@p that only exists in your warped mind.
Just go back and re-read your posts and tell me if they don’t sound like they are from a mad man…
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This is the reason why I finally told you to calm down. You can’t be on nearly every thread that pops up on LT and think that you are making sense every time. Noooooo…..dude, calm down!!!
When chimuka aka tarino was busy begging me for money he put his tail in between his legs . When he was busy punting like a dog on top of me, he was telling me everything i wanted to hear, now I want my money back he is ignoring me. I will take you to court you silly old man
Yambayamba – We told you all this and that PF is too incompetent and corrupt to handle such matters …they are even capable of releasing falsifying data.
@Hon Payne Mwamba Kapema your language is in bad taste and very disgusting. Try to argue and contribute intelligently to this blog you embecile.Some of us on this blog would not like to listen to Kaponya’s nauseating swear language .Behave as a mature adult you fool
@Hon Payne Mwamba Kapema your language is in bad taste and very disgusting. Try to argue and contribute intelligently to this blog you embecile.Some of us on this blog would not like to listen to Kaponya’s nauseating swear language .Behave as a mature adult you fool
Misguided Zambia is trying to be Magufuli-like…minimal closures and let’s pray the virus away . Wait for an explosion of new cases like Tz.
The Asia consultant should be probed further, Ba journalist investigate further what consultancy this Asian is providing and to who? Problem we only have kapyopyo media houses, prime TV journalists would have probed this Asian matrix further, I MISS PRIME TV journalists.
Man from Asia… codeword for a Man from China (Wuhan!!!!)
Does Lusaka represent the all Zambia. You must up your game of testing across the country
Pray there’s no explosion of cases in Lusaka after one week.
Pray there’s no explosion of cases in Lusaka after one week.
I guess flu doesn’t do so well in the African summer.