President Lazarus Chakwera recently announced a K17 billion strategy aimed at facilitating the hiring of new healthcare frontline workers and the construction of new treatment units  to complement overwhelmed public hospitals.

The strategy arrives amidst growing concerns and demands by various stakeholders, urging the government to swiftly act on the second wave of the virus in Malawi, as they felt that the government was being lax in handling the situation.

Following the strategy, government will will construct temporary hospital such as 300-bed capacity field hospital at Blantyre Youth Centre, turn State House in Zomba into a temporary hospital to cope with patients affected by Covid-19, Bingu National Stadium in Lilongwe will be a 100-bed makeshift hospital and another field hospital will be created in Mzuzu.

On the other hand, K100 million will be injected into hospitals run by Christian Health Association of Malawi to support payment of health workers, while schools in Malawi will close for at least 15 days from Monday under new restrictions which include the introduction of night curfews from 21:00 local time to 5am and the reduction of public gatherings from 100 people to 50.