COVID-19: Health care workers continue to be affected; Tuesday registers three of them

 

By Duncan Mlanjira

As Malawi continues to register more COVID-19 cases, frontline health care workers in the fight against the pandemic continue to be vulnerable as from Tuesday’s update of 29 new locally transmitted infections, there are three of them.

The three are one each from Karonga, Lilongwe and Nkhata Bay. Saturday’s update had four frontline health care workers, Sunday had five while Monday they were five.

Tuesday’s update registered no deaths but on Monday four people succumbed to the pandemic after recording 45 new cases. As of Tuesday last week, there were 104 new cases with seven deaths, on Thursday there were 84 new with three deaths, Saturday there were 103 new with seven deaths while Sunday recorded 107 new with five deaths.

The total number of deaths since April is now at 103 with just the past week alone registering 26.

A situation report presented by co-chairperson of Presidential Taskforce Force on COVID-19, Dr. John Phuka says there are now 61 new recoveries, bringing the total number of recoveries to 1,728 cases while total number of active cases is 1,907.

The report says from the 29 new cases, 21 are locally transmitted infections and eight imported. The local transmissions 11 are from Blantyre, four from Lilongwe, two from Chitipa and one from Mzimba North.

The imported cases were identified at Mwanza border with four of them from Blantyre and one each from Lilongwe, Mwanza, Neno and Nkhata Bay.

The update says eight cases on Monday were misclassfied as from Neno but were imported cases also identified at Mwanza Border.

The update adds that cumulatively Malawi has recorded 3,738 cases including 103 deaths and of these 962 are imported infections and 2,784 being local transmissions.

The average age of the cases is 36 years, the youngest being aged 1 month, the oldest is 93 years old while men top the list at 66%.

The country has so far conducted 27,514 COVID-19 tests in 39 testing sites.

Dr. Phuka has strongly advised the public to desist from using unproven drugs as self medication for COVID-19 whether as a treatment or as prophylaxis as this could lead to serious side effects leading to drug resistance in the long run.

He urged the public to stay at home and contact medical personnel on 54747 if experiencing COVID-19 signs and symptoms such as flu, cough and/or fever.

On Monday, when the four were registered, Dr. Phuka said this called for “self-reflection as a country as we are losing a lot of lives due to the pandemic and a lot more are being infected”.

“Our lives have been disrupted greatly due to this disease. This is the time for us to seriously consider to re-strategize our day to day lives and only make decisions that help to reduce the spread of the virus in our midst.

“We all need to treat everyone that you meet as a potential carrier of the virus and we need to strictly follow all preventive measures wholesomely.”

He reminded the public for severe COVID-19 case to:

*Get screened for chronic conditions — this means getting checked if one has diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, TB and HIV;

*Ensure the chronic condition one lives with is under control — ensuring they are regularly taking medication for diabetes, hypertension, TB and HIV.

For general preventive measures:

*Frequent handwashing with soap of disinfection with alcohol-based hand sanitizer;

*Respiratory hygiene such as covering mouth and nose when coughing and sneezing;

*Avoiding over crowded places;

*Physical distancing of at least 1 meter;

*Proper wearing of masks and avoidance of sharing of used masks;

*Regular environmental cleaning and disinfection;

*Limiting unnecessary travel;

*Strictly adhering to self-isolation and self-quarantine protocols for those confirmed positive and exposed respectively.