BLANTYRE, Malawi (AP) – Malawi is facing a resurgence of COVID-19 that is oppressing the southern African country, where a presidential residence and a national stadium have been transformed into field hospitals in an effort to save lives.
President Lazarus Chakwera, just six months in office, lost two cabinet ministers to COVID-19 in January, amid a wave that led him to declare a state of national disaster in all 28 districts of Malawi.
Chakwera declared three days of national mourning for the deaths of transport ministers and the local government, which shocked the nation and inspired a series of new measures aimed at curbing the spread of the virus in a country with a precarious health system. A more contagious coronavirus strain reported for the first time in South Africa has been confirmed in Malawi.
“Our medical facilities are terribly understaffed and our medical personnel are outnumbered,” Chakwera said in a recent speech.
Malawi saw its number of confirmed cases of the disease exceed 23,000, including a total of 702 deaths as of Monday, according to Dr. John Phuka, co-chair of the presidential task force at COVID-19.
The numbers seem relatively small in a country of 18 million, but the 14,000 active cases are often more than the number of established hospital beds. Authorities are setting up makeshift facilities to increase the number of treatment facilities from 400 to at least 1,500, sometimes erecting tents on hospital lawns.
The State House presidential residence in the southern city of Zomba will soon be transformed into a 100-bed treatment center, officials said.
A 300-bed field hospital at the Bingu National Stadium has begun to admit patients. Another 300-bed field hospital was opened at a youth center in Blantyre, the country’s largest city. And a 200-bed emergency care unit has been installed in the northern city of Mzuzu.
The government also recruited 1,128 medical professionals, only 1,380 that health officials said were needed.
The Chakwera government – a retired pastor who was relatively new to politics when he was elected in June – has already spent more than $ 38 million to fight the pandemic. Last month, he ordered the finance minister to release another $ 22.6 million as soon as possible to meet the demands of the crisis.
Among the measures imposed by Chakwera, who started broadcasting a virus-related speech to the nation every Sunday night after the death of his ministers, is the closure of schools for at least 15 days until February 8. An evening curfew is being applied and all meetings are restricted to a maximum of 50 people.
“The situation is quite desperate,” Chakwera said in a recent speech, referring to the lack of health infrastructure. “Although in my six-month term we created 400 national treatment units, the current wave of infections has completely overloaded these facilities.”
Malawi has ensured sufficient doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to vaccinate 20% of its population, with the first shipment scheduled to arrive in late February, he said. Frontline workers, the elderly and those with underlying illnesses will be prioritized, Chakwera told the nation, calling for outside help to fight the pandemic.
The international aid group Médecins Sans Frontières also responded to the crisis by opening a 40-bed COVID-19 ward, fully equipped and managed by its employees. The group noted, however, that creating more hospital beds may not be enough.
“Malawi urgently needs vaccination – which is unfortunately unlikely to happen before April 2021, and even then, only for a part of its population,” the organization said in a statement. “By that time, the pandemic may have already peaked and killed many who could have been protected by vaccination.”
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