LUSAKA, May 22 (Xinhua) -- Zambian President Edgar Lungu on Friday directed health workers not to quarantine patients who only test positive for COVID-19 but do not have symptoms.
The Zambian leader said only patients showing COVID-19 symptoms and have other underlying symptoms should be quarantined in isolation centers.
In his address to the nation on the COVID-19 outbreak, the Zambian leader said quarantining patients who have no symptoms would expose them to other diseases.
According to him, such patients should be placed under self-isolation at their homes where they could be monitored so that they could be productive.
Zambia has now 920 cases after 54 tested positive out of 579 tests in the last 24 hours.
The Zambian leader noted that the pandemic would not go away anytime soon and urged people to accept and live with it the way they were living with other endemic diseases but urged citizens not to promote stigma.
He urged citizens to keep themselves warm as the country enters the cold season because common colds may worsen the spread of the disease.
The Zambia leader said he was impressed with the adherence to set guidelines by some businesses which were recently allowed to reopen, adding that the government was forced to ease some business operations because the economy was facing a harsh situation. Enditem
