Health office struggles to trace Covid-19 contacts
Blantyre District Council Director of Health and Social Services, Gift Kawalazira, has said they are facing challenges in tracing people who travelled on a bus together with a person who has tested positive for Covid-19.
Kawalazira said one of the latest Covid-19 cases was on the bus on 21 April 2020 such that there are fears he might have infected other passengers.
He has since urged all passengers who boarded the bus on the day to contact any nearest health Centre.
“It is difficult to track each and every passenger that is why we are appealing to the public and the passengers that may have been in contact with this bus to present themselves to health officials,” Kawalazira said.
He added that they have already contacted the bus owners and that it will be disinfected while the driver and the conductor have already been identified.
Meanwhile, health workers from different institutions in Blantyre met at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (QECH) to encourage each other as they fight the pandemic.
They came from Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Trust, QECH, College of Medicine, John Hopkins and Blantyre District Health Office.
QECH Director, Samson Mndolo, said the fight against the pandemic calls for collective efforts.
“We came together to show our unity in the fight against Covid-19. We have worked together for quite some time; it is only today that we decided to come together at one place,” he said.
By Thursday, Blantyre had registered nine Covid-19 cases out of which one has died and two have recovered.
Mathews Kasanda is a journalist who holds a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from University of Malawi (The Polytechnic).
In 2015, Media Institute of Southern Africa awarded him the Best Print Media Education Journalist of the Year accolade.
He joined Times Group Newsroom in September 2019.
