Health Minister Chitalu Chilufya gives a COVID-19 update
HEALTH Minister Dr Chitalu Chilufya says Zambia has recorded a staggering 850 new COVID-19 cases and five deaths in the last 24 hours.
And Dr Chilufya has revealed that young people are now succumbing to the deadly COVID-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, Ministry of Health Director of Infectious Diseases Professor Lloyd Mulenga said so far, various COVID mortalities were associated with high sugar levels, which had failed to be controlled.
Speaking during the COVID-19 update in Lusaka, Wednesday, Dr Chilufya announced that the pandemic had now reached alarming levels in the country, with skyrocketing new cases hitting an unprecedented 850 in the last 24 hours, with five deaths.
Dr Chitalu Chilufya
MINISTER of Health Dr Chitalu Chilufya says the country has almost tripled the number of COVID-19 cases from 295 reported last week to 620 new cases in the last seven days.
Speaking during the weekly COVID-19 update, Dr Chilufya said the country was experiencing a second wave of the pandemic.
“Country men and women, it is very clear that the second wave is here. We had reported only 295 last Wednesday in the update in the previous week but this week, we report on 620 new cases. This week, we reported increased number of cases that are severely ill in our hospitals. There is adequate evidence for us to conclude that we are in the second wave. The possibility of mutation of the virus we have been seeing here, different from the strains we see in South Africa, in the UK. This is the reason why our professionals are alert and working hard to do genomic sequencing to ensure that we determine the strain that we are having in the second wave,” Dr Chilufya said.