adminConrad Mupesa Mash West Correspondent
A series of training workshops for health personnel in Mashonaland West Province have been conducted by the Ministry of Health and Child Care as it ramps up efforts to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in the country.
Speaking to The Herald, Provincial Epidemiology Disease Control officer Dr Gift Masocha said six out of seven districts received training last week.
Kariba district is outstanding and is scheduled for this week.
Dr Masocha said the province was targeting zero positive cases and is engaging local authorities to disseminate information to communities.
A call has also been made to the councils to ensure that safe water is provided to communities all the time.
“We had a training workshop in Kadoma on Thursday where we invited Chegutu, Sanyati, Mhondoro Ngezi districts,” said Dr Masocha.
“Kadoma and Chegutu local authorities also participated in the training. Makonde, Zvimba and Hurungwe districts attended the same training workshop on Friday at Chinhoyi Provincial Hospital.”
The province, through the Ministry of Health received some funds from Unicef for integrated case management and health education on Covid-19 for communities.
Dr Masocha said all districts were now being trained so that they cascade community leadership benefits for further training.
The provincial and district Rapid Response Teams (RRTs) have been activated and all the three points entry patients are being screened by qualified staff and follow-up of contacts is expected to be done.
Dr Masocha said the ministry was providing training workshops and awareness campaigns to various stakeholders as a way of speeding up preparedness.
“We have had awareness talk to workers at Muriel and Ayrshire mines in Zvimba North Constituency about Covid-19 and the talk was a special request from the mine’s management.”
However, he bemoaned lack of individual preparedness as people fail to heed Government’s call to stop gatherings of over 100 people.
“Our main challenge as a province is we do not have enough people to fight the pandemic and our provincial referral hospital only accommodates six patients and another worrying matter is how people still gather willy-nilly failing to heed the below 100 people per gathering call made by
His Excellency President Mnangagwa recently.”
Mashonaland West provincial development coordinator, Ms Cecilia Chitiyo said the Department of Civil Protection was on high alert. All border posts in the province have since activated response teams.
She urged communities to follow verified news sources to avoid unnecessary panic.
Peter Tanyanyiwa
Online Reporter