On Saturday 9th May 2020, Minister of Health, Jappie Mhango announced that Malawi has registered 13 new cases of Covid-19 of which 7 were from Thyolo, 5 from Blantyre and 1 from Mangochi, which was also the first case for the district.
But according to the travel history of the Mangochi patient that Zodiak has seen, she is a 26-year-old female who traveled back from South Africa in January 2020, which health authorities have also ruled out that is out of incubation period of coronavirus as her samples were collected on May 7.
The situation has left people thinking that the district might have more unidentified cases suspicious that the current patient has contracted it within.
Speaking to Zodiak in an interview Monday, director of preventive health services for the district, Dr. Kondwani Mamba, said while totally agree that the patient is ruled out to have imported the virus herself from South Africa, it’s also too early to conclude that she contracted it within Mangochi.
“Actually we are on the ground to investigate the same. You know it can take some time for someone to give all the information, we are dealing with a patient, probably surprised and shocked to be a case and we need to give her time to give us details,” said Dr. Mamba.
He said it is possible that she came into contact with someone who is not from Mangochi or indeed it’s a local transmission from the district but that information will be revealed after the investigation.
Dr. Mamba also said they are investigating her 8 contacts including one health worker whom their samples have since been collected for testing.
“Who knows, maybe one of these contacts will come out positive, and with proper investigation it may also came out that the first suspect contracted it from one within the group who might be the index case,” explained Dr. Mamba
As of last Saturday the district statistics indicated that a total of 20 samples were collected, of which 12 were already tested and 11 come out negatives and 1 positive.
While the country registered 3 Covid 19 deaths, 14 recoveries, and 39 active cases but with mild conditions according to the health authorities since the first case was found last month.
