Mmbelwa district council director of health and social services Dr Lumbani Munthali made the remarks Monday during a media briefing on covid19 preparedness.

Mzimba district hospital is the first district hospital in the country to start testing for the novel corona virus using its molecular laboratory.

According to Dr Munthali the lab has capacity to test 90 samples at one go and will also carter for samples from Kasungu.

He said the testing is crucial as the mathematical modelling on coronavirus indicates that Mzimba could register 900000 cases by end of one year if the disease is not put under control.

"In the mathematical modelling, Lilongwe district will have the highest number of cases almost 1.5 million and Mzimba is coming second.

The district will register 900000 cases a number of them will be hospitalized, a number of them will need intensive care and over 3000 will die from the pandemic," said Dr Munthali.

In view of this Dr Munthali has urged people in the district to report persons who have travelled to other countries to the authorities to be tested.

"As a district we have not registered a case maybe because a lot of people have not been tested but now that we are able to test we want more people to come forward for screening and testing," said Dr Munthali.

Weighing in Mmbelwa district council director of administration Thomas Mwafongo appealed to communities to patronize the testing center.

"There is a lot of misinformation on the disease, some say the cases being registered are fake but am appealing to communities to take this disease seriously and they should be patronizing the testing center," said Mwafongo.

Meanwhile with support from Malawi Red cross, works are underway to renovate the old hospital premises which could be used as an isolation treatment unit.

The district health office through the education directorate has also identified some primary schools to be used as isolation treatment centers.