By Francisco Mwanza
MZUZU-(MaraviPost)-The Mzuzu city residence especially those who stays around fuel reserves area at Sonda, has expressed fear over the presence of track drivers from Tanzania who ferry fuel to Malawi over the spread of deadly corona virus.
Track drivers from Tanzania which is one of the countries heavily hit by corona virus stays in Malawi for more than two weeks waiting to offload fuels before going back to their native country.
It is however doubtful if they are quarantined before crossing the boulders between these two countries which puts a lot of Malawians on danger of contracting the deadly corona virus.
Village headman Zatuba Nyirenda whose area lies near the fuel reserves asked the goverment of Malawi to make sure that these drivers are quarantined before entering this country and bring enough evidence that they are free from the corona virus.
“We share the same resources with the track drivers on everyday basis. when some of them goes,some do come. Our fear is that there country is highly affected by the virus,” said the village headman.
Adding that direct trade engangements with foreigners as it a trend now by alot of people in Mzuzu, can speedup the spread of the virus, if preventative majors are not well followed.
Effort to talk to the National Oil Company of Malawi (NOCMA) officials remained furtile as our questionaire which we were asked to send to the spokesperson, Telephorus Chigwenembe hasn’t been answered for some days now.
On tuesday 21st April 2020, the goverment of republic of Tanzania through its minister of Health Ummy Mwalimu announced 53 cases registered in 24 hours raising the countries tally to 147.
Malawi has registered 23 cases with 3 deaths and latest death report is said to be a person who travelled to Tanzania.
The northern part of Malawi which boarders Tanzania hasn’t registered any case sor far.
Currently the Mzuzu city councill Convid-19 response committee has projected that if the pandemic is not dealt with.
Mzuzu alone which has a population of 230 000 people, will have more than 13 000 cases by the end of this year.
As of April 22, 2020, Malawi had 23 Covid-19 cases with three deaths.