COVID-19: 3 New Cases Confirmed

The Government has today confirmed three new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours.

The update provided by the Ministry of Health is as follows:

 “Zambia has recorded three (3) new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours.

• The first case involves a 58 year old man of Makeni who is a contact to a confirmed case that travelled from Pakistan in March 2020.

The second case is his 13 year old daughter.

The third case involves a 41 year old female who is a primary contact to the deceased patient of 8th April 2020

• All the new cases have been put in isolation at Levy Mwanawasa Teaching Hospital.

• All the contacts to the three newly confirmed cases are being traced for screening and testing.

• The first two patients are among the people we have had difficulties in accessing during contact tracing as the family went into hiding. They ignored calls from the contact tracers and kept themselves locked up in their home while pretending to be out of town. Through forceful measures, and in line with the Public Health Act CAP. 295, our vigilant rapid response team managed to get access to them for screening and testing. They have since been admitted to the isolation center and all their contacts are being traced.

• The 74 year old man is improving but still requires intermittent oxygen support.

• In the last 24 hours 106 tests were conducted bringing the total number tests to 1,528. Among the tested, a known positive with repeat tests is still positive to COVID-19.

• This brings the total number of confirmed cases to 43 including two (2) deaths and 30 recoveries. The number of persons in admission is 11, with 9 in Lusaka and 2 on the Copperbelt. All patients in admission are in stable condition.”