Malawi records 5 new cases of Covid-19: 24 patients have recovered

Minister of Health Jappie Mhango has announced  that the number of  coronavirus (Covid-19) cases in Malawi now stands at 64, as six new cases have been registered on Wednesday.

Mhango, briefing journalists in Lilongwe, said the five new cases have been confirmed by three laboratories in Lilongwe, Blantyre and Mzuzu.

He said: “Three of the cases have been confirmed by Mzuzu central hospital lab. The 3 are from Nkhatabay. Both have travel history to Tanzania. Two arrived in the country on 8th May, 2020 from and one on 11th May, 2020. All are clinically stable.”

The minister said one case has been confirmed at National Reference Lab at PHIM in Lilongwe.

“She is a 53 year old female contact of the case from Chilinde. Yesterday a total of 43 samples were collected by Lilongwe District Health Office (DHO) and most of them were contacts of the Chilinde case, they are household and workplace contacts. Out of the 43 samples, only one tested positive,” said Mhango.

He said Lilongwe DHO is continuing with contact tracing for the case.

Another case has been confirmed by College of Medicine Lab, in Blantyre.

“The person is a 29-year-old lady from Thyolo. She is a contact of a confirmed case in Thyolo,” said the minister.

He said health workers are tracing all the contacts of the case so that they can also be tested for virus.

The Minister of Health said so far Malawi has now registered a total of 63 confirmed Covid-19 cases.

“Of these, 24 have successfully recovered 3 lost their lives and 36 are still under management by the health system,” he said.

Lilongwe remains the worst hit with 26 cases, including two deaths, followed by Blantyre with 16 confirmed cases and one death, Thyolo is third with nine cases while Mzuzu has three , Nkhatabay has three and one each in Chikwawa, Mulanje, Zomba, Nkhotakota, Mangochi, Karonga and Zomba.

Mhango said Ministry of Health is working hard to increase the number of testing centres to reduce the turnaround time for the samples.

Although public and private schools remain closed since March, church gatherings continue with strict social distance compliance while bars, central and mobile markets remain open with little compliance to social distancing.

The political campaign rallies for July 2 fresh presidential elections are being conducted without any social distancing measures attracting hundreds of people.