A person in Blantyre who recently returned from the United Kingdom and was in self-quarantine has tested positive for coronavirus.
Minister of Health Jappie Mhango has confirmed saying tests were done yesterday at the College of Medicine laboratory.
“With this new case, Malawi now has 4 new cases of coronavirus and we can confirm local transmission based on the initial three cases from Lilongwe. All these 4 cases have mild disease,” said Mhango.
He then warned Malawians that the country is at war with the disease hence the need to work together to contain the virus.
He said government is now intensifying measures to contain the disease by among other things ensuring contact tracing on all those individuals that came into contact with the confirmed cases and by provision of testing services to all suspected cases.
According to Mhango, government is also surveillance on coronavirus, enforcing measures on social distancing, enforcing hand-washing in all communities and providing Personal Protective Equipment to all personnel who are at risk of contracting the disease especially health care workers.
“The Ministry of Health knows that coronavirus realises that there is shortage of health care workers and is therefore working on increasing the funding allocation to the staff to be recruited now and fast tracking the recruitment process for health care workers,” he said.
The minister further said that government has repaired ventilators in central hospitals and has provided an additional 20 new ventilators in treatment sites to help Covid-19 patients.
“In infrastructure, all district hospitals have reserved rooms and spaces for treatment of confirmed cases that have moderate and severe disease.
“Works on other existing treatment sites has started now that we have funding for all the 10 sites in some of our border districts and central hospitals,” he said.
