Another spike of Malawi Covid-19 count: New 70 cases, South Africa returnee dies in Karonga
Malawi on Friday reported a record 70 new coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic cases within 24 hours of recording another 102 infections bringing the total numbers to 273 as one of the Malawian returnees from South Africa has died few hours after arriving at his home village in Karonga.
Briefing journalists in Lilongwe on Friday, the Presidential Task Force on Covid-19, co- chairperson Dr. John Phuka said the new 70 cases, 66 are from the buses that just returned from South Africa, two are a mother and baby who were being treated at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital.
“The mother and child recently travelled to South Africa,” said Phuka.
He said the other two cases are from Nsanje and Lilongwe.
The Lilongwe case is a local transmission and from Mtsiriza.
Malawi reported its first Covid-19 case on April 2 this year and only reached the 100-case mark on May 24 also largely due to 15 cases among arrivals from South Africa.
The country on Friday also received 120 Malawians deported from South Africa on specially cleared flights chartered by the South African Government, and another group of 120 deportees are expected on Saturday.
Farmers Union of Malawi president Prince Kapondamgaga, who is a member of the task force, said the country need rapid response to the pandemic.
Phuka, a public health specialist himself, said they are considering institutional quarantine only for cases with symptoms for easy management.
Meanwhile, a 42 year old man who recently returned from South Africa has died, Karonga Director of Health and Social Services (DHSS), David Sibale confirmed on Friday.
He said the person was brought to the hospital already dead and the hospital officials are suspecting him to have been suffering from Coronavirus.
“The deceased has been living in South Africa and he arrived in Karonga on Thursday afternoon. The man was complaining of fever and general body pains. We are yet to establish if he had Coronavirus. We are just waiting specimen test results from our laboratory in Chilumba,” said Sibale.
However, Sibale said considering that the deceased had just arrived from a high risk Covid-19 country, the body has been handled following Covid-19 safety precautions and supervised by health officials for safe burial.
The deceased hailed from Simfukwe Village in the area of Traditional Authority (TA) Kyungu in Karonga.
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These figures are highly suspicious. Where these people isolating now (as they are supposed to self isolate for two weeks) and who is policing? Does any Malawian know of these people and where did they get tested? I bet we will be getting more and more of these stories the closer we get to the elections.
John Hopkins and Liverpool trust are globally known organisations. Why would they ruin their reputation over an insignificant country like Malawi. Politics aside this is real.
John Hopkins does not conduct tests in Malawi only obtains data from Ministry of Health or Media broadcasts or published newspapers, Tanzania refuses to publish results even though their hospitals are full of patients. Covid-19 is real the data published is up to each individual Government
Foolish Government importing Covid-19 cases from South Africa while being unprepared to deal with people entering the country without isolating these people first. The decision to use Kamuzu Stadium was wrong when hostles at Polytech are available. This 200% increase of cases are cases of South Africa not Malawi. Government is distorting the figures unnecessarily, if people arrive infected they are not Malawian infections but infections of the originating country.
Kkkkkkkk ? Times TV and Radio akuti tisadandaule chifukwa anthu saakufa ambili.
That’s true. How many people have died in Malawi since the first reported case? Three? In the same period, how many other people have died of other diseases? The answer is THOUSANDS.
Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi rajiun
So anyone coming from RSA tests positive? The situation in South Africa must be hopeless. Bwinotu Dr Phuka.
Government should make sure the returnees stay in quarantine until they test negative three times.
RlP comrade,All the best all who has arrived home.