Trust Freddy
Herald Correspondent
GOVERNMENT has intensified screening for Ebola at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport and other venues as the COMESA Summit gets underway, Health and Child Care Minister Dr Douglas Mombeshora has said.
Speaking after touring Port Health facilities at the airport on Wednesday morning, Dr Mombeshora said the measures sought to ensure the country remained safe as it hosted delegates from across the region, amid reports of Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya and Nigeria.
“This morning I took a tour of the Port Health screening facilities at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport. I just wanted to make sure that as a nation, we are prepared to screen all delegates who are coming to attend the COMESA Summit,” he said.
“We are worried about the spread of Ebola, which is now in three countries: the DRC, Kenya and Nigeria.”
Dr Mombeshora said he was satisfied with the airport screening facilities, which include new heat-sensitive cameras capable of detecting high temperatures from a distance.
“We have new cameras that are heat-sensitive, and they can pick, from a distance of about four to six metres, any high temperatures for those people who are coming in. The cameras can do multiple screenings at the same time,” he said.
He said only travellers flagged with high temperatures would be taken for further screening, adding that isolation facilities were in place and health staff were on high alert.
The minister, however, said screening would extend beyond the airport to cover conference venues and hotels, to cater for travellers who may be in the incubation period.
“Some people may come in while they are in the incubation stage and then develop symptoms after they have already passed through the airport,” he said.
“So we have also started screening people as they go into meetings at the different venues, and we are also starting screening at the hotels where they are staying.”
“Ebola is such a serious disease and we would not want it to spread to Zimbabwe.”
