Malawi is rationing the use of its limited Coronavirus test kits, as health workers are only testing people with symptoms and discharging asymptomatic patients without re-testing them.
Chairperson of the Presidential taskforce on Coronavirus, John Phuka, has confirmed the testing protocol in a statement.
He said the country has a limited number of test kits and it is important to rationalize their use.
“We are currently testing only those that are showing symptoms. For asymptomatic patients there is no need for re-testing to discharge someone for as long as one remains asymptomatic for 10 days from the day of diagnosis. Some people are demanding to be tested for discharge even if they were asymptomatic at personal level or on demand from workplaces – this is wasting our limited resources,” said Phuka.
He urged people in the country to be guided by the Ministry of Health protocols on testing and to stop moving from one testing centre to another when they are not satisfied with the test results.
Meanwhile, Malawi has registered 47 new COVID-19 cases, 141 new recoveries, and one new death.
All new cases are locally transmitted infections. Twenty-three of the new cases are from Blantyre, 14 from Mzimba North, six from Lilongwe (one is a healthcare worker), two each from Karonga and Nkhata Bay.
Cumulatively, Malawi has recorded 5,240 cases including 164 deaths. Of these cases, 1,089 are imported infections and 4,151 are locally transmitted.
There have been 2,857 recoveries and the number of active cases is 2,219.
The country has so far conducted 40,640 COVID-19 tests in 45 COVID-19 testing sites of which 534 tests have been done in the past 24 hours.
