By OLIVER SAMBOKO
VERY aggressive Covid-19 prevention measures should be immediately introduced to avert a new deadly variant which has been detected in South Africa and other countries, former Health Minister, Jonas Chanda has said.
Meanwhile, Emirates Airlines has suspended passenger flights to Dubai from South Africa, Zimbabwe and Zambia effective from yesterday (November 27) as part of efforts to contain the spread of the new strain of Covid-19.
According to travel updates issued yesterday, Emirates has temporally suspended passenger operations from these countries until further notice. In addition, the Dubai Covid-19 Command and control Centre (CCC) has directed that all travelers originating from or transiting from Botswana, Eswatini Lesotho Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Zambia would not be accepted to travel into Dubai effective yesterday, November 27, 2021 until further notice.
Meanwhile, Dr Chanda has warned that failure by government to institute immediate action against Covid-19 would not only lead to the overwhelming of the health sector but also collapse the country’s economy.
He said once the country imports the new variant considering the low level of adherence to covid-19 preventive measures, it will very difficult to contain the virus.
“Already we are expecting the fourth wave to hit and imagine with a new variant that has been detected in South Africa, definitely it will be a disaster which will overwhelm the health sector and collapse the economy,” he warned.
He said strict measures should immediately be introduced adding that the first priority, is for government to increase surveillance at both Airport and border entries to ensure that the variant is not imported into the country.
Dr Chanda said while borders should remain open, measures should be put in place to ensure the new variant is not imported into the country, saying otherwise this would breed doom for Zambia.
He also suggested that those coming from the countries that have already been affected by the new variant should be quarantine for not less than 10 days before allowing them into the community.
Dr Chanda noted that considering the low number of people who are vaccinated against covid-19, in the country which was only about 4 percent of the legible population, more needed to be done to avert the new variant which has been named Omicron by the World Health Organization (WHO).
He said although, so far no Omicron case has been detected in the country, there is a likelihood that the variant is already within the borders of Zambia.
Dr Chanda also explained that the South African variant is the worst since the outbreak of covid because it has a lot of mutations.
He said already the UK, USA and other nations have banned travelling to and from some Southern countries that includes Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia, which are neighbors to Zambia.
Dr Chanda also said because of the frequency of travel in the Southern African region, although Zambia has not recorded any case, measures should be put in place to ensure the new variant does no enter the country.
He also said government should ensure that the fourth wave does not affect the country as this will likely spell doom to the economy which slowly recovering from the first three waves.
Dr Chanda said it should be mandatory for all those coming into the country to have a varied covid certificate and all requirements for vaccination.
“Though this variant is problematic even to vaccines, those who are vaccinated are safer than the unvaccinated,” he said.
Zambia National Public Health Institute (ZNPHI) Director VICTOR MUKONKA says the institute is closely monitoring the trends and type of the Covid-19 variant in the country.
Professor Mukonka explained that this was being done so that necessary action was taken in case there are new strains.
He said the institute had also continued to heighten preparations in anticipation of the Covid-19 fourth wave.
He said among the preparations being conducted was the mobilizing of manpower, retraining the rapid response teams and mobilizing supplies.
