Zambia Covid Deaths Surpass 1,000

An estimated 1,020 people in Zambia have died as a result of Covid-19, with 547 of those deaths directly caused by the virus, the Ministry of Health has announced.

Speaking during a coronavirus briefing on Sunday, Health Minister Jonas Chanda said that the cumulative number of cases in the country now stands at 74,503 - eleven months after the pandemic first reached Zambia. 

On Friday, the Ministry of Health announced via social media that it had lit a candle to remember the more than 1,000 victims of the pandemic in Zambia. 

It comes as yesterday the country recorded 609 new cases of the virus, off the back of 4,144 tests. 

Dr Chanda said that despite the grim milestone, mortality rates in Zambia are actually dropping; having fallen to their lowest level in over two months.

Experts believe that a second wave of coronavirus infections was sparked by a new variant of the virus arriving in Zambia in December, having first been identified in South Africa. The new variant is believed to be more transmissible and slightly less responsive to vaccination, although research is still ongoing. 

According to Dr Chanda, 5,539 people in Zambia are currently unwell with the virus, of whom 330 have been admired to isolation facilities and 37 are in critical condition. 

He admitted that the emergence of new coronavirus variants was some cause for concern and said that information about these mutations would “play a key roll in recommended vaccine choices for Zambia as informed by scientific evidence from genomic sequencing”.