Experts have spoken in response to the additional measures put in place by government to address challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.  

An economic expert, Hope Kawaye, has faulted government’s decision of allocating additional K2 billion to the Malawi Enterprise Development Fund (MEDF) in a bid to fight against coronavirus pandemic.

In his national address, on April 4, President Peter Mutharika ordered an increase of MEDF loans allocation from K13 billion to K15 billion in order to help Micro, Small and Medium Scale businesses that have been seriously affected by the pandemic.

The expert said this fight requires a health response where among others government should seriously consider procuring a lot of equipment in various hospitals in the country.

Kawaye said: “Much as I commend government for coming up with different interventions, but I feel it’s not doing enough because there is need to allocate more resources to health sector so that the sector should respond accordingly.”

He said government must buy more medical equipment and also fully equip the medical practitioners because failure to do so is putting them at risk of the pandemic.

Meanwhile a health expert, Maziko Matemba, has commended government for its decision to recruit additional two thousand health workers to help the fight against the pandemic.

He described the move as timely saying it will boost the human resource in the country’s hospitals.

However, Matemba has asked government to procure enough protective materials so as to protect the lives of health workers.