HEALTH Minister Dr Jonas Chanda says Cabinet is on Wednesday expected to deliberate on the COVID-19 vaccine Cabinet memo co-sponsored by the Ministries of Health and Finance.
And Dr Chanda has announced that Zambia has recorded 214 new COVID-19 cases out of 4,844 tests conducted with two deaths in the last 24 hours.
In a statement, Wednesday, Dr Chanda stated that Cabinet was expected to deliberate on the COVID-19 vaccine memo co-sponsored by the two line Ministries.
He explained that the Ministry was laying all the necessary groundwork to expeditiously implement the introduction of the Zambia COVID-19 Vaccination programme.
“The COVID-19 vaccine remains a topical issue for Zambia/Africa and the global community. We continue to closely monitor countries that have implemented the COVID-19 Vaccine programme, particularly those close to home such as South Africa, Malawi and Zimbabwe in order to learn from the lessons they have experienced, given the similarities in our socio-demographic characteristics. This (Wednesday) afternoon, Cabinet is scheduled to deliberate on the COVID-19 Vaccine Cabinet memo co-sponsored by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Finance. As we anticipate the guidance of Cabinet in this regard, we continue to ensure that we lay all the necessary groundwork to expeditiously implement the introduction of the Zambia COVID-19 Vaccination Programme,” Dr Chanda stated.
He added that government had made tremendous progress towards the official launch of the Southern Africa Regional Collaborating Centre to be hosted in Zambia at the Zambia National Public Health Institute (ZNPHI).
“The Zambian government under His Excellency President Edgar Chagwa Lungu’s guidance has made tremendous progress in our engagements with the Africa Centre for Disease Control (CDC) for the official launch of the Southern Africa Regional Collaborating Centre hosted in Zambia at the Zambia National Public Health Institute. The launch will be graced by the Director of the African Union, Dr Nkengasong. In our efforts to become a regional centre of excellence for public health security, we are scheduled to begin offering short courses and a Master’s degree programme that will build capacity in public health emergency management, not only for Zambia, but for the region as a whole and beyond,” he added.
And Dr Chanda announced that Eastern Province recorded the highest number of cases in the last 24 hours with 51, while Western Province recorded only one case.
“We recorded 214 new cases out of 4,844 tests conducted (four per cent positivity). This brings the cumulative number of confirmed cases recorded to-date to 86,993. The new cases broken down by province are as follows: 51, Eastern; 44, Copperbelt; 36, Southern; 27, Lusaka; 23, North-Western, 12; Luapula, 10; Central, six; Muchinga; four, Northern and one, Western. Of the 214 positive samples, 158 were collected within the last 24-72 hours whereas 56 were older than 72 hours. The provinces with the highest positivity rate were Eastern (11 per cent) and Luapula (nine per cent), while Western (0.2 per cent) and Lusaka (two per cent) and Northern (two per cent) had the lowest positivity,” narrated Dr Chanda.
“Two new deaths were recorded from Copperbelt (one) and Northern (one) provinces. The cumulative number of COVID-19-related deaths recorded now stands at 1,187, classified as 656 COVID deaths and 531 COVID-19-associated deaths. A combined 139 discharges were recorded from both the COVID-19 isolation facilities and home management, bringing the cumulative number of recoveries to 83,617 (96 per cent). We currently have 2,189 active cases, of whom 2,070 (95 per cent) are under community management and 119 (five per cent) are admitted to our COVID-19 isolation facilities. Among those admitted, 88 (74 per cent) are on oxygen therapy and 23 (19 per cent) are in critical condition.”
