Health workers on alert for patients with respiratory symptoms
GOVERNMENT has put health frontline workers on high alert to look out for patients presenting respiratory symptoms, as Asia and Europe continue recording high numbers of new Covid-19 cases.
Health Minister Dr Jonas Chanda said at a press conference in Lusaka yesterday that the Covid-19 pandemic continues to rage around the world.
He however, added that fortunately for Zambia, the country has a positivity rate below five percent for the past two weeks with the overall positivity for this past week standing at three percent compared to four percent last week.
Dr Chanda cautioned citizens to remain extremely cautious and continue adhering to the five golden rules and other public health guidanes as advised by the ministry.
"To this end, our frontline health teams have been instructed to maintain high index of suspicion for cases presenting to health facilities with respiratory symptoms," he said.
Dr Chanda said according to an analysis carried out by the Ministry of Health, length of stay of patients in the health facilities is high.
"The length of stay in health facilities by patients remains on the high side, and so we urge the public not to let down their guard down in light of the reduced numbers," he said.
He said Covid-19 is real and infecting and killing the people, adding that it's worrying that some sections of the society have expressed premature elation at the perceived stability in the numbers.
"We wish to caution that we still face a possible increase in cases following the incubation period, which is the time between exposure to the virus and onset of symptoms, typically 5-6 days," Dr Chanda said.
He thanked the many health teams working on the ground for sustaining the fight against the pandemic.
Dr Chanda also thanked cooperating partners, like the World Health Organisation and the United Kingdom for helping with capacity building in Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response, which he said has helped the country to sustain the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, the country has in the past 24 hours, recorded 79 new Covid-19 cases out of 2, 872 tests conducted, representing three percent positivity.
This brings the cumulative number of confirmed cases recorded to date to 89, 009.