The number of Coronavirus cases in Malawi has exceeded 5000, with 1000 of the cases being recorded over the past 15 days.
Malawi recorded the first cases on 2nd April, 2020 and hit 1000 cases in 85 days. According to Co-chairperson of the Coronavirus Taskforce John Phuka, the subsequent 1000 cases were reported in 14, 10, 11 and 15 days, respectively.
“This shows that the number of cases reported may have started slowing down with fastest 1000 cases reported in 10 days during second week of July and the change from 4000 to 5000 being in 15 days.
“In any case, the number of cases is not accelerating. One reason for this, is that the number of cases found in returning Malawians coming through Mwanza Border has gone down and it may also be that the spreading of the disease within Malawi is stable or slowing down,” said Phuka.
He added that the number of cases reported recovering passed the 50% mark on 10th August and it is improving each passing day.
Phuka described the trend as encouraging saying it gives hope in this fight against COVID-19 pandemic.
He, however, warned that Malawi’s testing is not at a good level and he urged people in the country to continue observing prevention measures.
Meanwhile, Malawi in the past 24 hours has registered 38 new COVID-19 cases, 47 new recoveries, and one new death.
The new death is a 50-year-old man from Mzimba North.
All 38 new cases are locally transmitted infections and the patients include one healthcare worker from Mzimba North.
There are nine cases each from Blantyre, Nkhata Bay and Nkhotakota, six from Lilongwe, two from Chiradzulu, and one each from Karonga and Mzimba North.
Cumulatively, Malawi has recorded 5,026 cases including 157 deaths and 2,623 recoveries. There are 2,246 active cases.
Out of the total number of cases reported in Malawi, 1,084 are imported infections and 3,942 are locally transmitted.
The average age of the cases is 36.8 years, the youngest case being aged 1 month, the oldest being 98 years old and 67 % are male.
The country has so far conducted 38,451 COVID-19 tests in 45 COVID-19 testing sites of which 705 tests have been done in the past 24 hours.
