73 COVID -19 PATIENTS ON OXYGEN AS THIRD WAVE SETS IN

By KALOBWE BWALYA MORE than 200 cases of COVID -19 have been recorded in the last 24 hours with 73 of them on oxygen therapy out of 3,642 tests conducted. Three people have died, two from Levy Mwanawasa Hospital in Lusaka while one community death was recorded in Muchinga province, as the country entered the third wave. Ministry of Health Permanent Secretary – Technical Services – Kennedy Malama said that 2,026 were currently active cases, of which 1,923 are under community management with 103 admitted to COVID-19 isolation facilities. Dr Malama said in the last 24 hours, 17 new admissions were recorded and those presently in admssion, 73 were on oxygen therapy and 13 are in critical condition. He however said the ministry has continued to implement targeted testing as part of its routine surveillance and case finding intervention. The Permanent Secretary said the cumulative number of confirmed cases recorded to date now stands at stands at 95,263. He said the cumulative number of COVID -19 related deaths to date now stands at 1,281, classified as 721 COVID-19 deaths and 560 COVID-19 associated deaths. He observed that Zambia has entered the third wave, hence the need to ramp up preventive interventions. “We will continue to critically analyse the evolving epidemiological picture to inform our country preparedness, disease intelligence and response and we continue prioritizing the COVID -19 vaccination agenda. “We are confident more vaccines will be made available to our people using various pillars as we have updated before,” Dr Malama said. And Dr Malama said that with the approval of the Sinopharm vaccine for use, Zambia would receive100,000 doses from China to benefit 50,000people.