Malawi has registered 190 new Coronavirus recoveries, 66 new cases and one new death.

In total, the country now has recorded 2,430 cases including 747 recoveries and 39 deaths.

According to chairperson of the Presidential Taskforce on Coronavirus John Phuka, the new death is from Mzuzu.

Of the locally transmitted infections, six are healthcare workers (four from Mzuzu, and one each from Mzimba South and Neno), 29 from Blantyre, 11 from Mzuzu, four each from Mchinji and Lilongwe, two each from Dowa, Mzimba South and Neno, one each from Mwanza and Nkhata Bay.

Three of the imported cases are from Ntcheu while one is from Dowa (a refugee who recently arrived at Dzaleka Refugee Camp).

Cumulatively, Malawi has recorded 2,430 cases including 39 deaths. Of these cases, 811 are imported infections and 1619 are locally transmitted. Cumulatively, 747 cases have now recovered bringing the total number of active cases to 1644.

The average age of the cases is 34.9 years, the youngest case is aged 1 month, the oldest is 87 years and 66% are male. The country has so far conducted 20974 COVID-19 tests in 39 COVID-19 testing sites.

Meanwhile, Phuka has expressed concern over the continued rise in number of local cases (1619) as the number is twice the number of imported cases (811).

“The status of local transmission calls for continued efforts to prevent transmission using the measure advocated by Ministry of Health the includes frequent hand washing with soap, appropriate use of face masks and maintaining social distance of at least 1 metre,” said Phuka.

He then hailed patients who have declared their status openly in the past few days.

He said: “This is helping the public understand this disease better that it is now making our contact tracing easier and it will likely increase adherence to isolation and quarantine.”