By NATION REPORTER
THE Covid-19 isolation and treatment facili-ties, including the private hospitals risk being overwhelmed as they are filling up at a fast rate with 88 new admissions recorded in the last 24 hours, Ministry of Health Permanent Secretary for Technical Services, Kennedy Malama has said.
Dr Malama said the situation in Covid-19 isola-tion and treatment facilities although in line with earlier projections remained cause for concern.
He said 1, 767 Covid-19 new cases were rec-orded in the last 24 hours from the 14, 445 tests conducted.He said 1, 767 Covid-19 new cases were rec-orded in the last 24 hours from the 14, 445 tests conducted.
“This is unprecedented. We stand a real risk of overwhelming our health care system particu-larly case management if the situation of pre-venting and mitigating infections in the com-munity is not collectively and expeditiously ad-dressed,” he said in a statement.
Dr Malama emphasised the need to stop the spread of Covid-19 by closing the taps of com-munity transmission.
He said currently, only Northern and Muchinga provinces report positivity rates less than five percent.
It was a clear indication that the rates of com-munity transmission had drastically increased countrywide, compared to just three short weeks ago when the country had a nationwide positivity of between 1-5 percent.
Dr Malama urged the public to be wary of host-ing super spreader events such as weddings, kitchen parties, amatebeto, workshops, meet-ings, and other large gatherings which were all springboards of infection.
“We also wish to remind the public that the di-rectives issued during the last address to the na-tion on curbing Covid-19 by President Edgar Lungu remain in full effect. We therefore im-plore all relevant line ministries and stakehold-ers to enforce them accordingly,” he said. And Dr Malama said the Africa Union /Africa CDC Trusted Travel platform roll out plan had reached an advanced stage, with a list of multi-disciplinary and multisectoral focal point per-sons identified and key staff scheduled to be trained in the coming five days.
He said the ministry would issue a travel advi-sory in this regard soon to ensure that travellers were kept abreast of the developments.
Dr Malama said the platform was scheduled to be launched on June 17 to make convenient travel arrangements for those coming in and ex-iting the country.
