By KETRA KALUNGA
CENTRAL province minister, Sydney Mushanga has warned of revoking trading lincenses of all bars in Kabwe district that have defied President Edgar Lungu directive to close businesses to avert the spread of COVID-19.
Mr Mushanga said the provincial administration has received information from concerned residents that some bar owners have continued to sell alcohol by turning their houses into bars.
Speaking to the media in an interview shortly after conducting an inspection of some clinics in the district, Mr Mushanga said as the provincial leadership, they would not take such indisci-pline lightly which puts the lives of people at risk.
“We continue to receive information from whistle blowers that there are some bars in Mine area, Makululu, Nakoli amd Shamabanse that are selling alcohol without playing music and some are even turning their vehicles into bars,” said Mr Mushanga.
The minister said he had to this effect directed the office of the provincial police commissioner to quickly move in and bring the culprits to book.
Mr. Mushanga said that the provincial leadership would follow up the reports and revoke the trading lincenses of all the bars that have continued to sell alcohol in their homes.
The Bwacha constituency Member of Parliament (MP) said all those involved in the illegal act were enemies of themselves and humanity be-cause the fight against glob-al pandemic was bigger and should not be left to government alone.
And Kabwe mayor, Prince Chileshe led the operation on Tuesday evening accompanied by the Zambia Police Service and the council po-lice in Nakoli, Kawama and Chinaninani townships among others where some bars and house were found selling alcohol and took action by effecting arrest.
And Central Province Public Health Specialist, Isaac Banda has advised residents to re-port any suspected cases of COVID-19 cases promptly.
Dr Banda also dispelled the rumours that Kabwe had re-corded two cases of COVID-19 at the Newborn, Mother and Child Hospital, formerly Mine Hospital.
He however urged the public to report an sus-pected case of COVID-19 to the provincial health office for screening and testing.Dr Banda said it would not be wise to ignore any suspect-ed case because it might turn out to be true after being sub-jected to screening and testing.
He was speaking in an inter-view in Kabwe yesterday after receiving a donation of hand washing materials from One Acre Fund worth K220 000 to be distributed to about 20,000 farmers in Kapiri Mposhi, Chibombo and Chisamba districts.
The provincial public health specialist said the community should come together in fight-ing the spread of global pandemic.
“We need to fight this together, even when you hear rumours pass them on to us, we are everywhere but if we are able to follow up these rumours they might be true, they might be false,” Dr Banda said.
Dr Banda has also challenged the community to be ready to fight COVID-19 while calling for straightening of community structures. He said COVID-19 could be prevented if communities un-derstood what was expected of them such as practising hand washing and social distancing among other preventive measures.
Dr Banda commended One Acre Fund for the donation which would go a long way in promoting the health of farmers.
Speaking earlier, One Acre Fund Local Government Relations Lead, Ramona Phiri, said her organisation was humbled to take part in the fight against COVID-19 through the donation.
Ms Phiri said the hand wash materials which include 19,512 tablets of soap, hand sanitizers and pumps would be distrib-uted to farmers in the three district.About 100 field managers under One Acre Fund would distributed the items.
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