2020-12-30 13:05:37 GMT2020-12-30 21:05:37(Beijing Time) Xinhua English
LUSAKA, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) Health authorities in Zambia on Wednesday officially confirmed the outbreak of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Minister of Health Chitalu Chilufya said the country has started recording an increase in the number of cases as well as daily deaths from COVID-19, signifying an upsurge in the pandemic.
He said during a COVID-19 update briefing that a new variant similar to the one in South Africa has broken out in the country. We have seen clearly the pandemic returning with increased numbers. This clearly shows that the second wave is here. The call to action is for us to respond, he said.
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.
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