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New covid-19 cases drop

Malawi has for the past three weeks registered a decline in new Covid-19 cases, prompting health experts to suggest that the country is past the peak of the fourth wave.

Covid-19 data from the Public Health Institute of Malawi (Phim) shows that in the week between January 11 and 17, the country recorded 2 478 new cases, representing an average of 354 cases per day.

The week between January 4 and 10, the country recorded 3 974 cases or 568 cases per day, while the week between December 28 2021 and January 3 2022 the country recorded 4 776 cases representing 686 cases per day.

Covid-19 hospitalisations are on the decline

Public health experts Titus Divala and Gama Bandawe said the decline in new Covid-19 cases indicated that the fourth wave peak was over.

However, they predicted that the number of Covid-19 deaths and hospitalisation would continue to rise for another two to three weeks before numbers flatten.

Divala said: “So hospitals are and will remain extremely busy. We all must, therefore, act responsibly not to add to the already high workload.

“Overall, the fourth wave has been the most infectious, spreading to perhaps the largest number of people that we have seen with any other wave. Fortunately, despite being very infectious, it has been the least severe in terms of numbers requiring hospital care and numbers dying.”

Bandawe, who is Malawi University of Science and Technology head of biological sciences, said if the number of deaths and hospitalisation do not start to decline in the projected period, it will mean something else happened.

He said: “The decline in the number of new Covid-19 cases may also mean that a lot of people are not going for Covid-19 test.”

New cases in the country were high in the week between December 21 and 27 2021, when at least 6 328 new cases were recorded, the highest since Covid-19 fourth wave started in November 2021, representing an average 904 cases per day.

The week also recorded the highest number of new Covid-19 cases on a single day as 1 265 cases were recorded on December 24.

As of Monday, cumulatively, the country has recorded 82 792 cases, 2 474 deaths and 65 521 recoveries

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