Government has closed three Hungry Lion outlets at Kulima Tower, Cairo Road and Levy Mall.
And government has also closed a PicknPay outlet in Lusaka’s Central Business District owing to the outbreak of cholera.
Meanwhile, the United Nations (UN) has donated US$1.3 million towards the fight against cholera.
Speaking at a joint press briefing with the Ministries of Local Government and Water Development, and the Office of the Vice-President, Health Minister Dr Chitalu Chilufya said some tests conducted at various food outlets had indicated the presence of vibrio cholerae among others.
“Regrettably, an analysis of food samples, food preparation surfaces and hand swabs from food handlers in various food outlets have indicated the presence of vibrio cholerae, E. Coli and faecal contamination. Consequently, the Ministry of Health in collaboration with the local authority have closed Hungry Lion outlets at Kulima Tower, Levy mall and Cairo road in line with the requirements of the Public Health Act,” said Dr Chilufya.
“And we have also closed a PicknPay outlet in town because one of their food handlers showed signs of cholera and they did not report it so we want to do more assessments. We will start assessing food handlers to ascertain if they qualify to touch food.”
And speaking at the same event, UN Resident Coordinator Janet Rogan announced the donation of US$1.3 million towards the fight against the disease.
“Our initial response now with government is to provide two million doses of cholera vaccine. This is for one million people to be treated because each person needs two doses. And for effectiveness, if you have only one dose, it may cover you for maybe three months to six months but two doses will cover you for up to three years. This is not a lifetime but it will enable us to be safe now while we put in other measures to prevent cholera from spreading. So we also have raised US$1.3 million to support the vaccination campaign,” said Rogan.
Meanwhile Avic International and MMI integrated steel limited donated K100,000 each towards the fight against cholera.
One Response
We commend government on its efforts to cub cholera. Nevertheless, we think they should have gone further and quarantine the compounds or townships with cholera cases – not to allow the people in those compounds or townships to leave the quarantined compounds / townships. Allowing people in the affected compounds / townships is recipe for spreading the disease to township that have not reported any cases.