Second Dose Covid-19 Vaccination Programme To Resume This Week

The Ministry of Health says it will resume the Covid 19 vaccination programme on Wednesday June 23, 2021 following the expected arrival of 108,000 additional doses of AstraZeneca vaccine.

Ministry of Health Permanent Secretary for Technical Services Kennedy Malama said everything is on track for the resumption of the vaccination programme for Dose 2 of the AstraZeneca vaccine under the COVAX facility.

The Permanent Secretary assured the general public that government will continue to work towards acquiring more doses of the vaccine to benefit more Zambians.

Dr Malama said the escalating cases of Covid 19 cases are not unique and peculiar to Zambia alone but a phenomena affecting the region, Africa and the world.

He said the World Health Organisation (WHO) has announced that Covid 19 cases in Africa have increased by 52 per cent in the past week.

Dr Malama said government is working towards taking the Covid fight away from hospitals and into communities by partnering traditional and community leaders on heightening community participation in the fight against the pandemic.

“We are pleased to note the interest to partner with government in the fight against the COVID-19 which is affecting both the rural and urban districts of our country,” said Dr Malama.

The Permanent Secretary said plans are underway to engage leaders of Marketeers, other traders and transporters to change behaviours aimed at curbing community transmission. 

Dr Malama said 1,816 new cases have been detected in the last 24 hours out of 11, 589 tests conducted, bringing the cumulative total of confirmed Covid 19 cases to 126,973 cases.

He disclosed that 41 people have died in the last 24 hours with 35 from Covid deaths and 6 from Covid associated deaths.

Dr Malama said the death toll from the pandemic now stands at 1,595, with 965 classified as Covid deaths and 630 as Covid-19 associated deaths.

He regretted that there is an increasing number of persons brought-in-dead to the University Teaching Hospital mortuary.

Dr Malama said the mortuary is filling up fast and had only 86 spaces available as at Saturday morning.

The Permanent Secretary said he will engage the Ministry of Local Government to help manage disposal of unclaimed bodies piling up at the mortuary.

He said 2,076 discharges were recorded from both the Covid-19 isolation facilities and home management, bringing the cumulative number of recoveries to 105,960. 

Dr Malama said there are currently 19,418 active cases, of which 18,501 are under community management and 917 are admitted to Covid-19 isolation facilities.

The Permanent Secretary disclosed that Coptic hospital has agreed to provide space for COVID-19 patients.

Dr Malama said government will continue to engage other health facilities and training and re-orientation of staff in both the public and private facilities is ongoing in order to ensure provision of quality health care.

He stressed that the Child health week will proceed as scheduled and appealed to schools across the country to provide space for easier management of crowds.

This article originally appeared on Lusaka Times

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