* First donation is worth MK1.6m
* Items procured in liaison with DHO
By Duncan Mlanjira
Citizens with origins from Balaka, who initiated a fundraising campaign last January to procure COVID-19 medical supplies for District Health Office (DHO), are set to present the items on Wednesday.
In conjunction with various wellwishers, the Balaka COVID-19 Citizen Response bought the first batch of equipment worth K1.644 million.
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The list of items purchased include 12 purse oximeters at K174,000; 2 infra thermos (K50,000); 35 coveralls (K420,000); 4 mattresses (K200,000); 150 N95 masks (K375,000); 20 hand sanitizer in 5litres bottles (K300,000) and 50 face shields (K75,000).
The items were procured in liaison with the DHO, which identified its isolation centre’s needs.
As of Monday evening, Balaka did not register a new COVID-19 active case; no new related deaths and had three admissions.
Balaka situation report
Total active cases were at 303 while recoveries were at 105. Cumulatively, Balaka has registered 419 confirmed cases since April last year with related deaths at 9.
Total number of tests done was at 1,164 while 300 cases were on self isolation as of Monday evening.
Monday’s national COVID-19 situation status saw 155 new recoveries, bringing the cumulative number to 11,756 recoveries while 14,582 were active cases.
Of those recovered were 14, who were discharged from treatment units while 227 were new cases registered as well as 18 new related deaths.
National report
Blantyre registered highest number the new cases at 88 followed by 73 from Lilongwe and from the 18 new related deaths, six are from Blantyre, five from Lilongwe, two from Mchinji and one each from Mzimba South, Thyolo, Neno, Ntcheu, and Mulanje districts.
Of the current active cases, 221 were hospitalised — 66 in Blantyre, 56 in Lilongwe, 20 in Mzimba North and 12 in Zomba.
Cumulatively, Malawi has recorded 27,422 cases including 874 deaths (case fatality rate at 3.2%) and of these cases, 1,985 are imported infections and 25,437 are locally transmitted.
The stats were discovered from 937 COVID-19 tests were conducted of which 323 were through SARS-COV-2 Antigen Rapid Diagnostic test while the rest were through RT-PCR.
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