
14/05/2020
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION VINDICATES PRESIDENT LUNGU ON THE ‘NEW NORMAL’.
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....the President’s resolve is premised on a delicate balance of avoiding a public health catastrophe while ensuring that people do not get vulnerable says Dr. Chitalu Chilufya.
LUSAKA- - - - THURSDAY, May 14th 2020
SMART EAGLES
The coronavirus may never go away and populations will have to learn to live with it just as they have HIV, the World Health Organization has warned - as the global death toll from the disease nears 300,000.
And Zambia’s Health Minister Dr. Chitalu Chilufya has indicated that WHO’s position resonates with President Edgar Lungu’s position to deal with the pandemic while harnessing other sectors of the economy and ensuring that they remain functional.
Republican President Dr. Edgar Chagwa Lungu coined his government’s position as the “New Normal.”
“The Republican President Dr. Edgar Chagwa Lungu has been consistent that there is need for us to ensure that in abetting a public health crisis, we do not expose our people to other lethal situations such as hunger and poverty and also that there is need for us to take a cautious approach to return to normalcy informed by the Public health.
“And this has been his consistent message , he has further said that he is carefully watching the Pandemic through an analytical eye and that the plan that he has put in place is a scalable one, it’s adaptable and it’s adjustable.” Dr. Chilufya stated during today’s COVID-19 routine updates.
The Minister stated that the President’s resolve was premised on a delicate balance of avoiding a public health catastrophe while ensuring that people do not get vulnerable.
“And what the WHO said resonates precisely with his position that we need to reset to a new way of doing things to ensure that we balance up the need for us to avoid a health catastrophe while we are ensuring that people do not get vulnerable to other ills such as poverty . So a delicate balance is the aspiration that he has pitched .” He added .
Meanwhile Dr. Chilufya has announced that the country has recorded 208 new cases of Covid-19.
The new cases are from the mass screening conducted in Lusaka, Nakonde and other parts of the country in 3 batches .
Minister said this is out of the 903 tests conducted in the last 24 hours.
This leaves the country on a cumulative total of 654 cases with seven deaths, 134 recoveries and 523 active cases .