Health workers have demanded an apology from Lilongwe City South East legislator Ulemu Msungama for questioning results of coronavirus tests at Kaliyeka.
The Health workers want the Malawi Congress Party Member of Parliament to retract his remarks in which described test results as fake.
Last week, the Ministry of Health announced 14 coronavirus cases from Kaliyeka which is in Msungama’s constituency.
In a Facebook post on Thursday, Msungama claimed that there were no tests conducted on 10 of the cases and as a result no outbreak in Kaliyeka.
“Mr Dudha’s (a person who died from coronavirus) immediate family members also confirm that he was asthmatic, actually from birth and died from an asthmatic attack.
“These very poorly administered and botched up cases cannot help but confirm my suspicion that the motive behind this hullabaloo is to scare the people in my constituency and the larger community registering and engaging in the upcoming fresh elections,” said Msungama.
On Saturday, health workers said they had not been able to test contacts of confirmed cases at Kaliyeka due to a hostile environment emanating comments from political leaders in the area.
“With the negative perception people have against us, we can easily be attacked. I would have loved to have the MP retract his post,” one health worker said.
During a meeting yesterday where Msungama was present, Lilongwe DHO Alinafe Mbewe demanded the MP to clarify his post or meet his constituents and tell them that the results from Kaliyeka were accurate.
She also suggested that the MP should accompany health workers when going to the community.
At a press briefing later, Msungama did not apologise but urged people to follow precautionary measures in order to prevent the spread of the Covid-19.
On Sunday morning, his post containing unsubstantiated claims was also yet to be removed.
Malawi has recorded 33 coronavirus cases and there have been three deaths as well as four recoveries.
The parliamentarian was just a voice for many. We will die because of poor handling of the issue. Why only govt, where are the opposition, the church, NGOs, and the rest? We can’t trust our govt this time around. Don’t apologize Mr. Msungama until really transparency is in place. Don’t fool us people.