‘BEWARE OF NEW COVID-19 SYMPTOMS’

By SANFROSSA MANYINDA THE public must pay attention to health conditions as Covid-19symptoms have kept changing overtime,Health Minister, Dr Chitalu Chilufya has advised. Dr. Chilufya said it would be easy for health personnel to treat early symptoms if people quickly went for testing once. Citizens, he said, must pay particular attention to their health and identify any changes in their health conditions. He cited development of skin rash, excessive sweating, diarrhoea and vomiting as well as eye infection as some of the new infections of the virus. The Minister was speaking during the daily Covid-19 update in Lusaka yesterday and disclosed that in the last 24 hours, Zambia recorded 233 new cases with Lusaka and Copperbelt having high numbers. Dr Chilufya said 39 patients were on oxygen six are critical and in theIntensive Care Unit (ICU) while one has died. The cumulative cases recorded stands at 6, 580 with 4,701 recoveries and 171 deaths. “We continue to urge stakeholders and the public to work closely with health personnel in a bid to fight this deadly pandemic. “We need to ensure that there is adherence to the laid down preventivemeasures in order to fight the pandemic,” Dr Chilufya said. He said diabetic, complicated HIV and hypertensive patients wereat a higher risk hence the need to observe the guidelines at all times. He said that 60 percent of those who died had sugar related complications.