Ministry of Health has eased Covid-19 restrictions following a decline in the number of new confirmed cases and admissions.
The Minister responsible Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda told Journalists on Wednesday at Parliament building in Lilongwe that the decision was made after presidential taskforce met yesterday.
In her remarks, Chiponda said due to steadily declining COVID-19 cases and deaths in the country, the pandemic level has now moved to Level 1.
This means there is no restriction for travel into Malawi as long as inbound travellers produce a negative PCR based COVID test Certificate that is no older than 72 hours on the day of arrival into the country. All arriving travellers of all nationalities, including Malawians, are also expected to show an electronically verifiable Covid-19 full vaccination certificate at the point of entry.
She added that workplaces are allowed to go back to their normal schedule whereby all workers should be going to their offices while following preventive measures which include wearing of masks, use of hand sanitizers as well as social and distances.
She further said that public transport can carry maximum capacity of their vehicle and people can walk up to 12 midnight without any restrictions.
On gatherings she said: “50% of the venue for indoor events, with a maximum of 500 persons, subject to observance of recommended general public health preventive measures, especially use of face masks, frequent washing of hands, use of sanitizers and social distancing;
“2,000 persons for outdoor events, subject to observance of recommended general public health preventive measures, especially use of face masks, frequent washing of hands, use of sanitizers and social distancing.”
Since the start of the pandemic, Malawi has recorded 85,106 cases including 2,599 deaths and 73,527 recoveries. Currently, the country has 8,748 active cases and 62 people are admitted in Covid-19 treatment centres.
In Malawi, 1,098,898 and 399,078 people have received the first dose and second dose of AstraZeneca vaccine respectively, 392,794 have received Johnson and Johnson, and 14,371and 642 people have received first and second doses of Pfizer vaccine respectively. Cumulatively, 792,514 people are fully vaccinated.
