RUSTENBURG - Lesotho remains the only southern African country with no confirmed cases of Covid-19, while Malawi has recorded a new case and another death.
In a statement, Lesotho's Health Minister Nkaku Kabi announced that the last three samples of suspected Covid-19 cases came out negative. They included a sample from a person died while waiting for results. The tests were conducted in South Africa.
Kabi said the results were an encouragement to Basotho to continue to adhere to preventive measures and comply with the World Health Organization's and Ministry of Health's protocols and safety measures against the spread of the coronavirus.
Despite not recording any Covid-19 cases, Lesotho imposed a 21-day lockdown as a sweeping measure to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
In Malawi, local media reports confirmed that the number of Covid-19 cases had risen to 13 and one more person had died of the virus.
News website Malawi24 reported that Health Minister Jappie Mhango had announced in Lilongwe on Sunday that a 55-year-old man in Blantyre had tested positive for Covid-19.
A 44-year-old man became the second person to die of Covid-19 in Malawi. He died on Saturday at Bwaila Hospital.
He is a Canadian of Burundian origin who arrived in Malawi from Canada on March 28 and was confirmed positive on Friday. His wife and another relative have also tested positive for Covid-19.
Meanwhile, Nyasa Times reported that a Chinese national was deported back to Zambia for refusing to self-quarantine for 14 days.
According to the news website, Jian Li arrived in Lusaka on March 26 and was placed in quarantine. He later travelled to Mchinji in central Malawi, where he was intercepted by immigration officers at a roadblock in Bua. Reports said he was on his way to Blantyre.
He was ordered to self-quarantine for another 14 days but defied the order and proceeded to Blantyre, from where he was sent back to Zambia.
Zambia has 43 confirmed coronavirus cases, with two deaths and 30 recoveries.
The novel coronavirus was first recorded in Wuhan, China, in December 2019 from where it soon spread to other parts of the world. Currently there are more than 1.8 million confirmed cases of Covid-19 worldwide, with more than 114,000 deaths and over 424,000 recoveries.
African News Agency (ANA)