Health experts dispatched to Nakonde

By SILUMESI MALUMO
GOVERNMENT has dispatched a team of experts led by Zambia National Public Health Institute officials to offer technical support and strengthen incident management systems on COVID-19 in Nakonde district, Minister of Health Chitalu Chilufya has said.
Dr Chilufya said the district was a hot spot and called for massive screening and testing to be conducted.
He said government was also engaging the Tanzanian government to strengthen cross border collaboration on the COVID 19 response.
Dr Chilufya said government had commissioned research that would provide scientific evidence to guide the covid19 response and strategic policy direction going forward.
He said the research would focus on understanding the prevalence of COVID-19 and severity of the disease.
The Minister said health personnel would continue targeted community screening and testing in Lusaka.
“Today we are still in Makeni area and we will expand to other areas of Lusaka,” he said.
And Dr Chilufya said in the last 24 hours two new COVID-19 cases had been recorded in the country.
Dr Chilufya said two cases tested positive from the 184 tests that were conducted at the University Teaching Hospital.
He said at the media briefing in Lusaka yesterday that the two cases were from Kafue district, COVID-19 hot spot.
Dr Chilufya said those affected included a 13-year-old child and a 34-year-old man who were contacts of other positive cases.
The two individuals had been moved to the quarantine facilities to undergo treatment, Dr Chilufya said.
He said and the new generation of contacts of the new cases was being tracked so they could be tested for COVID-19.
Dr Chilufya said there were no new cases on the Coppereblt saying the case the ministry was verifying was a repeat case in Masiti.
“That was a repeat sample from the case in Masaiti that is already in our admission,” Dr Chilufya said.
Dr Chilufya said cumulative cases had moved to 89, with three deaths, and 44 active cases.
He said currently Lusaka had 39 cases, four on the Copperbelt and one in Kabwe district in Central Province.
He said the patients who were in isolation centres in Lusaka and Masaiti remain stable, stating that 2942 people had been discharged from the quarantine centres and responded to 1,101 alerts which had been cleared as non-cases.