Members of the Press,
We have continued to respond to the cholera outbreak which has affected our people and our communities disrupting several services.
431 new cases have been recorded in the past 24 hours countrywide. This is slightly lower than yesterday when we recorded 452 cases. These new cases are from 6 provinces and distributed as follows: 381 in Lusaka Province, 31 in Central Province, 1 in Eastern Province, 12 in Southern Province, 1 in northwestern and 5 in the Copperbelt. Western, Northern and Muchinga have 0 new cases today. We are glad that Luapula continues to report no cholera case since this current outbreak and we continue monitoring and intensifying the prevention measures there too.
In the last 24 hours we have discharged 388 patients from the various treatment centers. This is slightly lower than yesterday when we discharged 400 patients. We now have 859 patients in admission across the country, a slight rise from the 821 patients we had in treatment centers yesterday.
We have recorded a total of 11 deaths in the last 24 hours, a further decrease from yesterday when we recorded 18 deaths. Of these, 9 deaths happened in Lusaka Province and 2 in Central province. We continue seeing more people brought in dead (BID) as 8 of these 11 deaths happened in the community and brought in dead (BID). Three (3) died in our cholera treatment facilities.
Lusaka province and Lusaka district in particular remains the most affected province. Lusaka district recorded 381 new cases in the past 24 hours. We have a total of 775 patients who are in admission to various Lusaka-based treatment facilities.
Here at Hero’s Stadium cholera treatment center, as of 06:00hrs this morning, we had a total of 576 patients compared to 524 patients we had in admission yesterday. 247 are males, 136 are females and 193 are children. 128 were referred to this facility in the last 24 hours. We also made 130 discharges during this same 24-hour period and referred 6 patients to Levy treatment center. We sadly lost three adult patients, including one transferred to Levy Treatment center. This patient had severe COVID pneumonia with Cholere.
There are an additional 47 patients admitted at Levy treatment center and 10 stable patients at the cholera center set up for the correction services at Kamwala Remand Prison.
Cholera Vaccinations.
The Government has been working with cooperating partners WHO and UNICEF to secure Cholera vaccines to add to the ongoing measures being implemented to control the current outbreak. The International Coordinating Group recently made a decision to provide some vaccines to Zambia. These doses are in the process of arriving in the country in several batches and about 1.6 million doses is expected to have arrived by this evening.
Following the arrival, an official handover will be done to the Ministry of Health by our cooperating partners tomorrow Monday, 15th January 2024. After this the Ministry will finalise the preparatory processes to begin community vaccinations in selected hot spots in Lusaka Province. The vaccinations will be conducted in a phased approach targeting people aged one year and above. Selected communities under Kanyama, Matero, Chipata, and Chawama areas in Lusaka as well as Rufunsa district will be targeted for this vaccination exercise based on quantity of vaccines expected, high-risk of transmission areas. The targeted vaccinations and implementation of prevention measures including provision and use of safe water, observing good hygiene and safe sanitary practices everywhere else will contribute towards limiting the spread of Cholera here in Lusaka and countrywide.
The Public Health (Infected Areas) (Cholera) (Amendment) Regulations, 2024 introduces key provisions to enhance cholera prevention and control measures.
Hon. Sylvia T. Masebo, MP
MINISTER OF HEALTH