Africa-Press – Zambia. Minister of Health Sylvia Masebo has cautioned directors in the Ministry not to unnecessarily delay government programmes.
Speaking when she met directors in Lusaka yesterday, Ms. Masebo warned senior ministry official officials against delaying programmes that are in line with the UPND manifesto.
She said dragging of feet in implementing presidential directives will not be condoned.
Ms Masebo said there is need for the ministry of Health to be prompt in delivering to the expectation of the public.
“What I don’t want as a minister, is if there is a directive by the President arising from the party manifesto and the parliament which is a legislative body goes to approve and we here at the ministry who are supposed to approve that begin to drag their feet,” Ms. Masebo said.
And Ms Masebo further disclosed that some functions of the Ministry will be given to local authorities.
Ms. Masebo said this is in line with the government’s policy of decentralization.
“Part of our functions in the delivery of public health services shall be passed on to the council countrywide. Even as we decentralize some of the functions, let us be cautious that we are dealing with the health and lives of people,” she said.
Speaking earlier, Ministry of Health Director of Human Resource, Frederick Mwila appealed for the permanent employment of almost 2,000 temporal health staff who were recruited in the fight against COVID-19.
“The ministry is also engaging the Ministry of Finance to have these people absorbed in the government payroll,” he said.
Mr Mwila further disclosed that 25,000 health personnel have been recruited in the last five years out of the targeted 30,000.
Ministry of Health, Director for Quality Assurance, Rosemary Mwanza lamented that her directorate is dependent on donor funding.
Dr Mwanza said funding to the department has been inadequate, making it a challenge to implement key programmes.
Meanwhile, Zambia has recorded 112 new confirmed COVID-19 cases out of 6,296 tests conducted in the last 24 hours.
Minister of Health, Sylvia Masebo disclosed that 208,161 confirmed cases have been recorded cumulatively and one new Covid-19 related was recorded in Lusaka in the last 24 hours.
She announced that the cumulative number of COVID-19 related deaths recorded to date now stands at 3,636 classified as 2,726 COVID-19 deaths and 910 COVID-19 associated deaths.
‘’We currently have 941 active cases with 60 currently admitted to COVID-19 Health facilities and 881 under community management.
‘’Patients in facilities of the admitted cases, 34 are on Oxygen therapy and 9 in critical condition, a slight increase from the figures recorded yesterday,’’ said Ms Masebo.
And she indicated that 10 new admissions and 9 discharges from the COVID-19 health facilities country wide were recorded in the last 24 hours.
‘’ Patients being managed from home, we had a further 30 patients discharged from home management, having met the WHO criteria for discharge,’’ Ms Masebo stated.
She announced that the cumulative number of recoveries recorded to date now stands at 203,584.
Meanwhile In the last 24 hours, 3,642 doses of Johnson and Johnson and 203 Dose 1 and 1,313 Dose 2 AstraZeneca and 28 Dose 1 Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccines where administered in the last 24 hours bringing the cumulative number of doses administered to date to now stand at 631,466.
Ms Masebo further appealed to mothers and families not to shun visiting health facilities to access various health services in the era of COVID-19 as measures have been in place to protect the citizenry.
