President Peter Mutharika said this Tuesday night when he commented on a government decision to effect a 21-day country wide lock-down from April 18.

Health minister Jappie Mhango announced the lock-down as the latest measure taken by his office in the growing fight against the virus which has now infected 16 people and killed two in the country.

Mutharika said other than tighten border security, his administration has also intensified laboratory testing for Covid-19 by setting up an additional testing laboratory at Mzuzu Central Hospital in the Northern region.

Malawi, with a population of 20.2 million people, has four Covid-19 testing laboratories while the number of people recently back from corona virus hotspots is above 6,000 and spread across the country.

According to President Mutharika, government is recruiting additional health workers and that out of 2,000 required, 626 have already been offered jobs.

“(we are also)…providing personnel protective equipment to health facilities in all the districts,” Mutharika said on the state broadcaster adding that his administration is conducting awareness campaigns to inform people on the virus

Mutharika noted that fighting Coronavirus was “a challenging war for everyone, everywhere” and expensive observing that the country requires about MK150 billion to implement its National COVID-19 Preparedness and Response Plan.

“We need to unite. Let me once again appeal to all political leaders that we need to join our hands in fighting this Coronavirus pandemic.

He said the 21-day national lock-down could be extended beyond mid-night 9^th May depending on trends in the efforts to curb impact and spread of the virus.

The president observed that the minister’s declaration outlined measures that will be in force during the period of the lockdown. 

 “I would like to urge you to fully comply with the measures because they are for the good of our country,” he said.