Rigorous Covid-19 training for 100 frontline workers

Herald Reporters

AT least 100 frontline health care workers drawn from Mashonaland East, Mashonaland West, Mashonaland Central and Manicaland provinces are currently undergoing rigorous training in Harare on measures to reduce the spread of Covid-19.

Since its outbreak late last year in China, the novel coronavirus has spread around the world and was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

As of yesterday, more than three million cases had been recorded, with more than 228 000 deaths confirmed and more than 847 000 recoveries around the globe.

In an interview on the sidelines of a capacity building workshop for health workers yesterday in Harare, the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare director epidemiology and disease control, Dr Portia Manangazira, said they were training frontline health workers to equip them with expertise to fight the pandemic.

“Today and yesterday we have been training a total of 100 health care workers. These are drawn from four of our provinces (starting with Mashonaland West), where we have a quarantine facility at the Zimbabwe Institute of Public Administration and Management (zipam), but we have recently had cases in Mhondoro.

“In Mashonaland East, we have the Ruwa family cases and recently there is the Murehwa case.

“There are also colleagues from Mashonaland Central who have not yet had cases, but we just want them to strengthen their preparedness and response for Covid-19.

“We have facilitation from Harare and Chitungwiza and we appreciate the experience that Harare has already had with Covid-19 cases so that they can impart their knowledge to other participants. We have been supported by the private sector to convene the training. So we are also giving back to them by training their own health care personnel,” said Dr Manangazira, adding:

“We want to ensure that there is a uniform approach to Covid-19 care and management in the country so that it should not really matter where you are treated. The quality of care should be the same whether it’s private or the public sector.”

The training is being attended by health care workers such as nurses, doctors, laboratory technicians, environmental health officers, data and information management personnel as well as those working in logistics.

The aim of the training, Dr Manangazira said, was to make all health care workers ready for Covid-19.