COVID-19 Cases Drop

There is brighter news from the Ministry of Health this week, with COVID-19 cases showing signs of heading in the right direction. 

In Thursday’s briefing the Ministry’s Permanent Secretary – Technical Services Dr. Kennedy Malama noted the reduction in active cases from a high of 22,867 on June 24th to 15,681 on July 8th. Daily hospital admissions were also down, from 259 on June 22nd to 160.

However, the overall positivity rate remains high at over 20% which is four times the recommended level of 5%. The cumulative number of confirmed cases recorded to date stands at 170,456, with the number of recoveries standing at 152,103 (89%).  

Meanwhile, administration of dose one of the latest AstraZeneca vaccines is commencing today. Health care workers, teachers, men and women in uniform and other frontline personnel, elderly and people with underlying conditions are being encouraged to get the vaccine, with a first come first serve approach taken. Further information on the vaccination sites is available on the Ministry of Health’s Facebook page. 

To date 142,198 have received one dose of either the AstraZeneca or Sinopharm vaccine, with 29,040 having received a second.  

Despite the positive trend the Ministry has warned that people should not relax and must continue to adhere to the various public health and social measures that have been put in place.