Mask4AllMalawi concerned with Covid 19 local transmission rate: Donates masks to UTM party

Masks4AllMalawi campaign has expressed concern over the increasing rates of Covid 19 local transmissions in the country.

Speaking to Nyasa Times, Chief Virologist at Masks4AllMalawi Medical Advisory Board, Dr Gama Bandawe said Malawi now has an uncontrolled local epidemic.

“We should be very or extremely concerned about the rising rate of local transmissions. We have transitioned from the state where the majority of infections were imported cases, in other words, these were cases that were coming in.

“We have now reached a state where accumulatively, the total number of local transmission is equal to the number of imported cases,” Dr he observed.

According to Bandawe, local transmission has accelerated and exacerbated the situation.

“We are soon going to reach the limit of our capacity to contact and trace and as hospitalizations increase, we are soon going to be overwhelmed as well,” he said.

Meanwhile, Masks4AllMalawi has donated 102,000 masks to UTM party.

Speaking on behalf of UTM, Luke Mkandawire said the donation is timely and would help contain transmission rate.

“We are very happy with the quality of the masks. We can contain the transmition rate if the masks are properly used at local level in densely populated areas along with good hygienic practices and social distancing,” Mkandawire highlighted.

Masks4AllMalawi Head of Partnerships Zilanie Gondwe said the campaign will be supporting different organizations, together with Ministry of Health and other stakeholders in order to mask the entire nation.

“Many organisations and political parties have been reaching out to Masks4AllMalawi for cloth masks. They recognise the importance of masks in combination with social distance and sanitising in minimising the risk of coronavirus among their constituents,” she said.

Gondwe emphasized that Masks4AllMalawi has the capacity to produce millions in a few weeks, saying this can most effectively be done in committed partnership.

The #Masks4AllMalawi campaign estimates that it can make and distribute Made-in-Malawi Community Masks to the total population of 19 million.