Zambia’s COVID-19 Struggle Noticed Internationally

As the country continues to struggle through its third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, news channels from across the world have started to pick up on the severity of the issue.

Channel 4 News, a UK media company, recently reported on the situation. The impact, it said, would be “felt for many years to come.”

Cemeteries which once saw 4 or 5 burials a day are now experiencing more than five times that amount, day after day after day, the news channel reported.

Sipho Phiri, who owns Leopards Hill Memorial Park Cemetery, spoke to Channel 4 about how the situation has changed over the last year.

“We bury the doctors, we bury the nurses, we bury mother and father, we bury parents and child,” he said.

“It’s extraordinary how many people are dying within a family. Someone dies and then the day of the burial someone else dies,” Mr Phiri added.

An extreme lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) and chronic shortages of oxygen is also adding to the struggles which doctors are experiencing as a result of COVID-19, Channel 4 reported.

“We are losing doctors and it’s scary and painful. We are tired and speechless,” one doctor said.

Although deaths within the country remain high, Dr Nathan Bakyaita of the World Health Organisation believes that there is a high possibility that there are far more deaths due to COVID-19 than is being reported due to the country’s Ministry of Health having a low capacity to test everyone with symptoms.

Having been in power for the last ten years, the Patriotic Front government are yet to prioritise healthcare and healthcare professionals within the country, subsequently putting the lives of its citizens at risk.

Photo: United Nations