In the past 24 hours, Malawi has registered 46 new COVID-19 cases, four new recoveries, and no new deaths.
One of the new cases, 17 are locally transmitted: 14 are from Blantyre District and three from Lilongwe health district while 29 are imported infections, these cases have been identified among 108 residents that have been tested when they were returning from South Africa.
Final destination districts of these cases are as follows: five to Blantyre, three each to Lilongwe, Mzimba North, Mzimba, South, and Nkhata Bay, two each to Dedza, Mulanje and Thyolo, and one each to Karonga, Kasungu, Machinga, Mangochi, and Zomba.
There is one case whose destination district was not indicated and is being investigated.
Cumulatively, Malawi has recorded 6,248 cases including 187 deaths. Of these cases, 1,304 are imported infections and 4,944 are locally transmitted.
Cumulatively, 5,668 cases have now recovered, 107 were lost to follow-up, and 76 are still being investigated to ascertain their outcome.
This brings the total number of active cases to 210. Of the active cases, two are currently admitted at Kamuzu Central Hospital.
The average age of the cases is 36.7 years, the youngest case being aged 1 month, the oldest
being 98 years old and 68.3% are male. On testing, in the past 24 hours, 389 COVID-19 tests were conducted, and cumulatively, 82,849 tests, have been conducted in the country so far.
The data today shows that the number of COVID-19 cases has increased substantially. The number of active cases had increased from 30 on the 11th December to 210 today.
This is very shocking. Both the number of locally transmitted cases and the number of cases coming from other countries are increasing. As if this is not enough, we hear there is a new strain of this virus that has emerged and that spreads extremely fast.
Unfortunately for us, this is happening during festive season when celebrations may spread the disease extremely fast through gatherings. Therefore, The Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 is challenged to control the entry of the disease as well as to stop spreading of the disease in our beloved country to ensure continuation of essential socioeconomic activities like education and transportation of essential goods.
The Presidential Task Force aims at safeguarding education of children by ensuring that COVID-19 does not escalate.
