• The cumulative number of confirmed cases recorded to date now stands at 202,787.
• Twelve new COVID-19 related deaths were reported in the past 24 hours.
• Total usage of the 977,600 vaccines received to date now stands at 527,205 doses.

Ministry of Health says Zambia has continued seeing an improving picture with regards to Covid-19 in positivity, admissions and deaths over the past weeks.
In a statement, Permanent Secretary for Technical Services Dr. Kennedy Malama however notes that the patients on Oxygen and those who are in critical condition remain relatively high at 72% and 27% respectively.
“It is from this pool of patients and a few from new admissions that we continue recording deaths. The patients we have in our hospitals have tended to stay longer, some up to two months more than we saw during the first and second waves again indicating the severity of the disease we are seeing.
“We further note that we are 88 days into the third wave, whereas by comparison, the second wave took 115 days,” Dr. Malama noted.
He stated that 22 admissions have been admitted today indicating that transmission is still taking place in communities, therefore the need for citizens not to drop the guard but continue adhering to the health guidelines.
And Dr. Malama revealed that the multisectoral teams countrywide inspected 2,061 premises, of which 1,799 were complaint, whereas 255 were served with notices of improvement and 7 were closed.
He further disclosed that the Ministry recorded 192 Dose 1 and 236 Dose 2 AstraZeneca vaccinations as well as 2,882 doses of Johnson and Johnson vaccines, bringing cumulative vaccinations to 308,123, while total usage of the 977,600 vaccines received to date now stands at 527,205 doses.
Zambia has in the 24 hours recorded 358 new confirmed COVID-19 cases out of 6,226 tests conducted, giving 5.8% positivity rate, with 12 new deaths, and 372 discharges, while the number of active cases now stands at 2,513 with 2,311 under community management and 202 admitted to isolation facilities.
Globally, 524,080 new cases including 7,642 deaths were recorded during the same period.