NUMBER OF COVID-19 PATIENTS ON OXYGEN STILL HIGH

By NATION REPORTER COVID-19 patients on oxygen and those in a critical condition remain relatively high at 72 percent and 27 percent respectively, Ministry of Health Permanent Secretary for Technical Services Kennedy Malama has said. Dr Malama said among patients currently admitted, 144 were on oxygen therapy and 54 were in critical condition. He said it was from this pool of patients and a few from new admissions that the country continued recording deaths. Dr Malama said in a statement that patients in hospitals tend to stay longer, some up to two months more than was witnessed during the first and second waves. “This indicates the severity of the disease we are seeing,” he said. Dr Malama said 12 new Covid-19 related deaths were reported in the past 24 hours, an increase from the low numbers seen in past week. “The deaths were reported from Eastern (three), Lusaka (three) North-Western (one), Southern (two), Copperbelt (one), Muchinga (one), and Western (one) provinces,” he said. Dr Malama said the cumulative number of Covid-19 related deaths recorded to date now stood at 3, 550, classified as 2, 665 Covid-19 deaths and 885 Covid-19 associated deaths. He however said the nation had continued seeing an improving picture in terms of positivity, admissions and deaths over the past weeks. Dr Malama urged the public not to relax as the situation though improved was not yet fully controlled. He said the ministry was stepping up surveillance and testing to timely detect spikes for appropriate action. “In keeping with our strategy of continued community engagement, risk communication and enforcement of infection, prevention and control measures, our multisectoral teams countrywide inspected 2, 061 premises, of which 1, 799 (87 percent) were complaint, whereas 255 (12 percent) were served with notices of improvement and seven (0.3 percent) were closed,” said Dr Malama.