BLANTYRE, Malawi (AP) – Malawi faces a resurgence of COVID-19 that overwhelms the South African country, where a presidential residence and a national stadium have become life-saving field hospitals.
President Lazarus Chakwera, with only six months in office, lost two cabinet ministers to COVID-19 in January, amid a wave that led him to declare a state of national disaster in all 28 districts of Malawi.
Chakwera declared three days of national mourning for the deaths of transport ministers and local government, which impacted the nation and inspired a series of new measures aimed at curbing the spread of the virus in a country with a poor health system. . Since then, a more contagious strain of coronavirus reported for the first time in South Africa has been confirmed in Malawi.
“Our medical facilities are understaffed and our medical staff is overcrowded,” Chakwera said in a recent speech.
Malawi has seen the number of confirmed cases of the disease exceed 23,000, including a total of 702 deaths on Monday, according to Dr John Phuka, co-chair of the COVID-19 presidential working group.
The figures seem relatively small in a country of 18 million, but the 14,000 active cases are many times more than the number of hospital beds established. Officials are setting up makeshift facilities to increase the number of treatment units from at least 400 to 1,500, sometimes setting up tents on hospital lawns.
The State House presidential residence in the southern city of Zomba will soon become a 100-bed treatment center, according to officials.
A 300-bed field hospital at Bingu National Stadium has begun admitting patients. Another 300-bed field hospital has opened in a youth center in Blantyre, the country’s largest city. In the northern city of Mzuzu, a 200-bed emergency care center has been set up.
The government has also recruited 1,128 medical professionals, few of the 1,380 that health authorities have said are needed.
The Chakwera government – a retired pastor who was a relative political newcomer when he was elected in June – has already spent more than $ 38 million in the fight against the pandemic. Last month he ordered the finance minister to release another $ 22.6 million as soon as possible to meet the demands of the crisis.
Among the measures imposed by Chakwera, which began broadcasting a virus-related speech to the nation every Sunday night after the death of its ministers, is the closure of schools for at least 15 days until February 8. . all meetings are limited to a maximum of 50 people.
“The situation is quite desperate,” Chakwera said in a recent speech, referring to the shortage of health infrastructure. “Although in my six months in office we created 400 national treatment units, the current wave of infections has completely overwhelmed these facilities.”
Malawi has secured enough doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to vaccinate 20 percent of its population, with the first shipment scheduled to arrive in late February, he said. Priority will be given to front-line workers, the elderly and those with underlying conditions, Chakwera told the nation, calling for outside help to fight the pandemic.
The international aid group Médecins Sans Frontières has also responded to the crisis by opening a 40-bed COVID-19 room, fully equipped and managed by its employees. The group noted, however, that creating more hospital beds may not be enough.
“Malawi urgently needs access to vaccination, which is unfortunately unlikely to happen before April 2021 and even for just a portion of its people,” the organization said in a statement. “By that time, the pandemic could have already reached its peak and killed many who could have been protected by vaccination.”
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