As Zambia continues to witness a spike in cases of Coronavirus disease, the Minister of Health has called for multi-sectoral enforcement of public health guidelines.
Dr Chanda has also encouraged the use of additional local home-based and traditional remedies to manage the less fever and non-symptomatic patients at home.
And the Minister of Health has announced that the Maina Soko military hospital is now the new additional isolation centre.
He says the Maina Soko military hospital will admit moderate to less critical patients.
Dr Chanda further disclosed that the Ministry of Health has seconded staff to work with the existing staff at the facility.
He says the development will assist in improving clinical management as the Levy Mwanawasa and the University Teaching hospitals isolation centre are decongested.
Dr Chanda expressed optimism that the decongesting of the two isolation centres will result in the efficient utilisation of oxygen and better patient outcomes.
Zambia has recorded 1,531 Coronavirus cases out of the 8,749 tests conducted in the last 24 hours.
According to a Ministerial statement issued and signed by Minister of Health, Jones Chanda, the country’s cumulative number of COVID-19 cases now stand at 37,605.
Dr Chanda revealed that 305 patients are currently in government healthcare facilities with 206 on oxygen therapy while 16 are in a critical state.
The Minister of Health disclosed that a total of 1,053 people are due for discharged today bringing the cumulative recoveries to 26,159.
On a sad note the country has recorded 9 mortalities with 7 in health facilities and 2 in communities in the last 24 hours bringing the cumulative pandemic related deaths to 546 ( 209 COVID-19 deaths, 333 associated and 4 yet to be classified).
This useless minister misunderstood job description, he is not minister of covid announcements.
This is was wasted appointment, and this next 6months of PF will be wasted.
Everyone’s involvement is key
The President has led only by word of mouth on the Covid issue. He opened Livingston to tourists. He has continued to travel around the country with massive entourages with party faithfuls, security detail and welcome ensembles. Dear Mr President, you may mask up and keep yourself protected but you do not know what 15 members of of your group are doing in the hotels at night. You may spend one day in Chingola but your security details will spend 4 days there. These trips are what we call ‘mass spreaders.’ Covid 19 is a regional disease. It spreads from one country to another, from one town to another, from one township to another, from one household to another and from one family member to another. The buses you hire to convey people to meetings are tubes of germs. Stop this for onec…
The deadly virus needs to be tackled cleverly and attacked from all the sides. Unilateral approach won’t help. What the minister has announced is the right strategy now as the second wave is here.
Though Covid19 is a major threat, people should not rush to hospitals and doctors for routine health complaints unless they have symptoms of Covid19. It will unnecessarily burden the healthcare system.
The resilience in our DNA has helped us survive the deadly virus, keeping the casualties remarkably low compared to other countries in the world, especially in Asia, Europe and USA. We will overcome the second wave also, by the grace of God.
It is good that government is creating additional facilities for the Civid19 patients. However, strict implementation of Covid19 guidelines is the key to keep the virus away.
Dr Chanda is proving that President Edgar Lungu took a right decision to appoint him as health minister. He will prove his worth, I am sure.
We need to fight the virus on different fronts simultaneously. The second wave is dangerous and could be more fatal. This is time to diversify our efforts and precautionary measures. Dr Chadna is doing the right thing.
We need more Covid19 hospitals and isolation centres. Effective management and optimum utilisation of available resources holds the answer to the problem.
Washing and sanitizing hands, wearing mask and maintaining social distancing is a must. No one should forget that. Only these measures can keep us safe.
It is high time that we followed the instructions from Dr Chanda. He is doing it for our good only. There is no reason to mock or criticise him.
The original Nostradamus was great man. He know everything that was going to happen. He must have written somewhere that there would be a dull guy in an African country who would take up his name and talk nonsense. Why don’t you keep quiet if you don’t know the topic elders are discussion?