HEALTH Minister Dr Chitalu Chilufya has disclosed that Vice-President Inonge Wina, who tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this month, has now tested negative.

And Dr Chilufya says Zambia has recorded 123 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours out of the 1,171 tests conducted.

Meanwhile, Dr Chilufya has disassociated government and the Ministry of Health from the COVID-19 relief package, which is being advertised on social media, saying the same was a scam by unscrupulous individuals.

Speaking at a daily COVID-19 update in Lusaka, Saturday, Dr Chilufya said that Vice-President Wina was in stable condition at her home after testing negative for COVID-19.

“Her Honour, the Vice-President, tested negative to COVID-19 and has been discharged from our care and continues to be rehabilitated at home. She is stable and is recuperating very well under our care,” Dr Chilufya said.

And he announced that the country had recorded 123 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours out of the 1,171 tests conducted, bringing the cumulative total to 11,902 cases.

He, however, added that they had lost a 51-year-old patient, who was also diabetic from the Levy Mwanawasa COVID-19 facility.

“In the last 24 hours, Zambia has recorded 123 new cases of COVID-19 all from Lusaka from 1,171 tests done. Unfortunately, we also lost one patient, who is a 51-year-old diabetic from the Levy Mwanawasa COVID facility. We, therefore, now are at 11,902 cases of COVID-19 cumulatevely. And after discharging 147 cases in the last 24 hours, we now have 11,092 recoveries. That is a very encouraging recovery rate, but that should not make us relax,” Dr Chilufya cautioned.

“Levy Mwanawasa COVID facility has 34 patients. Out of these 34 patients, we have 16 that require oxygen support. Of these 16, six are critically ill and require intensive care management, while 10 are on intermittent oxygen support. The rest of the country, other provinces put together, we have 29 patients, out of these, 10 are on oxygen support.”

Meanwhile, Dr Chilufya further disassociated government and the Ministry of Health from the COVID-19 relief package, which was being advertised on social media, dismissing it as a scam by unscrupulous individuals.

“There is, indeed, a scam by unscrupulous individuals running on various media platforms where they are advertising COVID relief packages, which is a scam and we disassociate government, the Ministry of Health from any of those adverts, COVID-19 relief packages, calling on you to pay some minimum amounts of money to access that COVID relief package…it’s a scam and should be frowned upon. Should you come across such individuals, report the matter to the police. And we disassociate ourselves completely from those scams,” said Dr Chilufya.