Covid-19 Testing To Be Increased To Over 2,000 Per Day
Health Minister Chitalu Chilufya announced on Tuesday that the government has scaled up laboratory capacity within the country in order to carry out an anticipated 2,000 Covid-19 tests per day.
The massive increase in testing capacity was achieved in partnership with the Centre for Infectious Disease Control (CDC) and the American government, which helped to reconfigure gene expert machines meant for testing tuberculosis into Covid-19 diagnosis devices.
Speaking at the daily Covid-19 update in Lusaka, Dr Chilufya said that the ministry of health has enough testing kits to cater for all the screening being carried out by health workers across the country.
“Let us avoid misinformation especially on social media. I wish to assure the nation that we have adequate capacity to test and have enough testing kits and still have more in the pipeline,” he explained.
Meanwhile, Zambia and the Chinese government have reached an agreement for the delivery of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and other medical supplies to Zambia, to aid the country in its fight against Covid-19.
China’s Ambassador to Zambia Lie Jie said his country would continue to support Zambia’s health system.
This comes after longstanding criticism from health experts that the government is not doing enough to supply protective equipment for frontline medical workers, nine of whom have contracted Covid-19 so far.
Private companies have also pitched in to deliver supplies, including Sanlam Insurance, who have provided food and material support worth K2.5 million.
The charity Amref Africa Health similarly donated 3,000 information booklets printed in braille - costing K50,000 - to help educate visually impaired people of the dangers of Covid-19.
Dr Chilufya thanked Amref for their support of “Health for all, leaving no one behind”.
A Covid-19 droplet test kit