RUNAWAY COVID

THE Lundazi district authority is in a state of panic after discovering that a business woman who was under quarantine after she tested positive to coronavirus has left the quarantine home and has since travelled to Malawi for her usual business trips. And District health Director Jonathan Chama says his office has since notified authorities at Lusunta border to immediately trace the Woman and return her back home for quarantine. Dr Chama has charged that his office would implement stringent surveillance at entry points through screening to lessen importation of COVID-19 into the district. ZANIS reports that Dr Chama was speaking in Lundazi yesterday, during the COVID-19 stakeholders meeting. And speaking at the same meeting Acting District Commissioner Chiza Mtonga called on stakeholders to revitalise COVID-19 measures by sensitising the general public through various channels and ensuring that they adhere to all the health guidelines. Dr Mtonga stated that there was need to enhance screening in all health facilities and intensify inspections of public premises. Recently reports indicated that although Chasefu had not recorded any case of Covid-19, fear had heightened among health authorities that an influx of cross-border traders from Malawi might bring the disease to the Zambian border town. Chasefu District Health Director Musamba Muyinda told a weekly COVID-19 preparedness stakeholder meeting that he was worried that if the situation was left unchecked along the Zambia-Malawi border, illegal cross-border traders had the potential to spread the disease into Chasefu, which is closer to Mzimba district in Malawi. He said people in Chasefu district were still not safe from the pandemic because of the illegal cross border interaction between the two countries. “So far 93 samples for those that interacted with a family in Khulamayembe that had gone to attend a funeral in Malawi, have already been taken to Chipata Central Hospital for testing, waiting for the results,” Dr Muyinda disclosed. ZANIS in Chasefu reported that health personnel and the police were this week on Monday deployed to Khulamayembe to stop traders who had mobbed-up to conduct business at Madede mobile trading centre along the border area, as a way of preventing the spreading of the disease. – ZANIS The Sun