Covid-19: Zambia’s Information minister tests positive
Sunday May 24 2020
Zambia's Information Minister Dora Siliya has tested positive for coronavirus. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP
Lusaka,
Zambia’s Information Minister Dora Siliya has tested positive for coronavirus, state TV reported Saturday.
Chief government spokesperson was quoted as saying the minister, who was asymptomatic, confirmed her status on testing for the virus.
Ms Siliya has since gone into self-isolation.
Zambia’s confirmed cases were approaching one thousand after the country widened its screening and testing. She was the first senior figure to make public her status.
The country had shut its border with Tanzania at Nakonde-Tunduma after recording more than seventy cases on a single day.
The landlocked state of 17 million never went into a lockdown but imposed restrictions which included closing bars, casinos, gyms and schools.
But two weeks ago, President Lungu allowed reopening of gyms and casinos but not bars, saying the country had to find a way of carrying on amidst the pandemic.
Universities remain closed but examination classes for secondary and primary schools will resume June 1.
He said the country’s economy was “choking” due to inactivity.
Zambia is grappling with a huge Chinese debt and a slowdown in economic activity necessitated by Covid-19.