Zambia may experience fourth COVID-19 wave: official

A senior Zambian government official said on Sunday that the country may experience a fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic this year.

Kennedy Malama, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health in charge of Technical Services said there was a possibility of having the fourth wave at the end of this year into early 2022.

He said it was for this reason that the government was prioritizing strengthening health systems across all pillars including the vaccination program.

“The efforts and strides we continue to make are focused on health systems strengthening not only for the COVID-19 pandemic response but for future health emergencies,” he said in a statement on the COVID-19 situations.

Zambia has witnessed three successive waves, with the current third wave being more ferocious so far, resulting in a spike in cases and deaths.

The country’s cumulative cases stand at 185,649 following 977 new cases recorded in the last 24 hours while total deaths stand at 3,084 following 32 new deaths in the last 24 hours. – AFRICA CGTN .