Zambia has become one of the top ten countries in Africa with the highest number of daily new cases reported in the past week, a government official said on Friday.

"It is clear that as a country we should brace ourselves for a possible third wave. This evolution of the COVID-19 situation in our country calls for concerted efforts of all players across the inner fabric of our society," Kennedy Malama, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health for Technical Services, said in a release.

He said there was a need to draw lessons from other countries, adding that the past 24 months have shown that the country was capable of mounting an effective response if there was concerted efforts from all stakeholders.

According to him, the super spreader events have continued to be a source of concern to the COVID-19 multisectoral response and urged all those intending to hold social gatherings to postpone the events but instead use virtual platforms.

He added that the country's health system remains weak and would not manage a surge in severe cases in hospitals requiring critical and emergency care.

In the last 24 hours, the country recorded 483 new cases out of 6,392 tests done. This brings the cumulative cases to 94,430 while 122 patients were discharged bringing the total recoveries to 91,443.

The country did not record any death during the same period with the current total deaths standing at 1,275.