Uncle Harvest: No death from covid19 on 9/9

For the first time in over two and half months or longer Malawi has registered no death from covid19 on September 9.

This is worth a celebration.

The number of those found positive after testing was 30, the lowest figure in a long time too.

Tribute must be paid to health and medical staff across the country who work so hard in covid19 isolation centres.

Their dedication, hard work, and sacrifice cannot be taken for granted.

The battle that remains to be fought is in the area of vaccinations. The country has vaccines available but is experiencing a very slow uptake.

This raises the fear that we might end up with some vaccines expiring while on the shelves. It is an experience we need not repeat.

The country expects to receive more vaccines this weekend and before the end of the month.

The Presidential Taskforce needs to revitalize both civic education and actual vaccination outreach programme.

As for the public, the prevention measures are the same; get vaccinated, keep social distance, wash hands with soap frequently or sanitize, wear a mask in public always.

Please do not misread what you see on television that other countries, particularly in Europe, have started allowing people in stadiums to watch football matches, the majority without masks.

The truth of the matter is that only fully vaccinated people are being allowed to enter those stadia. Secondly, in most of those countries over 60 percent of the population is vaccinated fully. In our case, we are not even at 3 percent yet.

This is not the time to let go of our guard and watchfulness.