In the communication, banking, health and other sectors, there are growing numbers of infections.

The Public Health Institute of Malawi further observes that there are growing local transmissions that are now equal to imported cases that had initially been the major source of Covid-19 confirmations.

As of July 1, 2020, Malawi had 77 new Covid-19 cases, eleven new recoveries, and deaths still stood at 16.

Of the new cases, 58 are linked to being in contact with confirmed cases, 18 are under investigation and one is imported.

Of the locally transmitted infections, 37 are from Lilongwe, eight from Zomba, eight from Blantyre (one healthcare worker), three in Rumphi and one each from Mangochi and Neno (both are healthcare workers).

Sixteen of the cases under investigation are from Blantyre and one each from Lilongwe and Machinga.

“The imported case is from Blantyre and was identified through routine screening at Mwanza border,” it said.

The average age of the cases is 33.9 years, the youngest case is aged 1 month, the oldest is 78 years while and 69% are male.

Cumulatively, the total of COVID-19 cases in Malawi was 1,342, including the 16 deaths since April. And there have been 271 recoveries from 14,683 COVID-19 tests conducted since April 2, 2020.

“Two hundred and one people have entered Malawi through the official ports of entry in the past 24 hours,” reads part of the report for the previous 24 hours.

Meanwhile, it is becoming increasingly uncertain that schools will reopen on July 13 as earlier projected.

This is because of a sharp rise in Covid-19 infections in the country at the moment.

On 31 December 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) was alerted of several cases of pneumonia of unknown cause detected in Wuhan City, Hubei Province of China. Later the disease was named Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19).

On 2 April 2020, Malawi registered the first cases of COVID-19 and on 6 May 2020, a Presidential Taskforce on COVID-19 was appointed.

Globally as of 30 June 2020, there were 10, 185, 374 (163 865 new) COVID-19 cases reported including 503 862 (3 946 new) deaths.

Out of these, 297, 290 (8, 943 new) cases and 6, 010 (131 new) deaths are in Africa.