By BUUMBA CHIMBULU
ZAMBIA risks importing new Covid-19 cases as the pandemic has remained rife in many parts of the world.
The country has however vaccinated over 21, 000 people in less than two weeks.
Government has therefore heightened surveillance at points-of-entry to detect any new cases that may be imported, says Health Minister, Jonas Chanda.
Dr Chanda said the government had observed a global burden of Covid-19 new cases with 830, 822 reported in the last 24 hours.
He said in a statement that Zambia therefore risked importation of new cases with the continued population movement.
“He indicated that 66 new Covid-19 cases had been reported in the last 24 hours, representing a positivity of 1.4 percent.
He however indicated that no Covid-19 related death had been recorded.
Dr Chanda said: “We have 44 patients admitted to our Covid-19 isolation facilities nationally. Among them, 33 are on oxygen therapy and eight are critically ill. We report 26 discharges from both the Covid-19 isolation facilities and home management, bringing the cumulative number of recoveries to 89,743.”
Meanwhile, Dr Chanda said Zambia had vaccinated a cumulative 21,919 people against covid-19 in less than two weeks since the vaccination programme was launched.
He said as of Tuesday, 4, 068 people received the vaccine countrywide. Dr Chanda encouraged the public to take up the vaccine which was on a voluntary basis.
“The vaccination programme is being implemented in a cautious and phased manner and on voluntary and pilot basis, as guided by Cabinet. The vaccination programme is being rolled out in the communities at various vaccination sites,” he said.
