The Ministry of Health in Zambia has praised sex workers as they are helping the ministry trace clients who have contracted coronavirus.
The BBC news site reported that a rise in new infections at the border town of Nakonde has seen health authorities getting help from the sex workers in contact tracing.
In Nakonde, 85 new cases have been recorded recently and Minister of Health Chitalu Chilufya said 76 of the patients are either sex workers or lorry drivers.
“They [sex workers] are being very co-operative in our investigations, and we don’t want to stigmatise or discriminate against them. They are being very useful in contact tracing,” Mr Chilufya said.
“We had a case where one of them appeared with symptoms and told us about a client who was a lorry driver of foreign jurisdiction and even gave us a contact number. We called that number and we were told the person we called had Covid-19,” the minister added.
Meanwhile, the Zambian government has temporarily close its border with Tanzania in Nakonde over the increase in cases.
In Zambia, 267 Covid-19 cases have been recorded. There have also been 117 recoveries and seven deaths.
