Zambia in coronavirus third wave, new cases have been confirmed

A Medical Expert in Zambia has warned that the Covid-19 third wave is now underway in Zambia.

Dr Francis Mupeta who is the Head of the Infectious Diseases Unit at UTH said the trend of new cases recorded in Zambia point to the start of a third wave.

Dr Mupeta said in the past 7 days, Zambia recorded an increase in the number of confirmed cases by 159% compared to the previous week.

He said deaths increased by 15% last week compared to previous week while the average number of hospitalization increased by 64% in the same period.

“If we look at Levy, the biggest treatment centre, the total number of hospitalised patients increased by 105% last week compared to the previous week while in the same period, patients on oxygen increased by 81% and the number of deaths by 50%,” Dr Mupeta said.

“If we compare the number of admissions at UTH and Levy in the same period, there was an increase of 57% in COVID-19 admission and a gigantic increase by 137.5% at Levy,” he said.

“Take together, we are not expecting resurgence, we have already reached resurgence thresholds in many parameters according to WHO guidelines.

In short, the third wave of COVID-19 has began.”

Meanwhile, Ministry of Health Permanent Secretary, Kennedy Malama says the Ministry will be resuming administration of the second dose of AstraZeneca on 23rd June, 2021.

Speaking during the COVID-19 update in Lusaka today, Dr Malama reiterated that the vaccination has been shown to mitigate the severity and mortality from COVID-19 and will continue building on this.

He said cumulatively, 141,722 people have received at least one dose of either the AstraZeneca or Sinopharm vaccine of which specifically 135,156 received AstraZeneca and 6566 received Sinopharm.

“Of those who received Sinopharm as their first dose, 5,286 representing 81% have gone on to receive their second dose,” he restated.

The Permanent Secretary further pointed out that government through his Ministry of Health is taking all necessary steps to ensure commodity security in the COVID -19 including isolation and treatment facilities, laboratories and points of entry (POE).

He indicated that the Ministry has continued exploring options as approved by cabinet to heighten the acquisition of additional doses of the COVID-19 vaccines in line with the approved basket of vaccines.

“One of the platforms we are exploring is the Africa vaccine acquisition platform and the country will be updated further in due course,” he said.

And Dr Malama explained that regarding learning institutions, the Ministry and its response team remain committed to ensuring that schools and higher learning institutions are safe learning environments for learners and students.

“Our ongoing surveillance in schools across the country saw 3,286 students swabbed, with 285 tested of which 13 were positive, spread across Eastern, Southern, Lusaka and Western provinces,” Dr Malama stated.

He added, “Our POE surveillance saw over 4,000 travellers screened in the last 24 hours and of these 9 were denied entry while 230 were placed under quarantine.”

Dr Malama observed that the country continues to see an increasing number of cases in Kazungula district and the Ministry of Health has since heightened interventions to prevent further escalation of cases.