Mozambique: Health Centre in Maputo “brushes aside” Covid-19 prevention measures

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Mozambique: Health Centre in Maputo “brushes aside” Covid-19 prevention measures

2:42 CAT | 15 Jan 2021

Photo: O País

The very same problems are replicated in the Port Health Centre in Maputo, as well as in the Emergency Room of Maputo Central Hospital.

Measures to prevent and combat Covid-19 are being ignored at the 1º de Maio Health Centre in [central] Maputo. Patients and staff do not have their temperature measured on entry, or wash or disinfect their hands, and, once inside, fail to comply with the mandatory physical distance of at least one-and-a-half metres between individuals.

The city of Maputo had registered , by Wednesday (January 13] 12,355 infections with the new coronavirus, out of a total of 23,726 across the country. One hundred and sixty-six of the 205 deaths registered throughout the national territory had occurred in Maputo. [The numbers have now risen]

Also read: Mozambique reports six more Covid-19 deaths, and 543 new cases (Thursday January 14)

These figures betray a growing trend in Covid-19 cases, but the scenario that ‘O País’ observed at the 1º de Maio Health Centre suggests that patients and workers there are unaware of the danger that the virus poses.

Another obvious factor at the hospital is how few people are wearing face masks, although everybody seemed to be equipped with this means of prevention.

Belchior da Conceição, one of the patients in the health centre on Wednesday, said that the entrance was unmanned, with no-one to measure body temperature, as per health authority recommendations.

“I arrived and I didn’t see anyone taking temperatures. I would have thought that this would have been the first thing to happen when I got here,” he commented.

In addition to the lack of temperature measurement, there was only one bucket of water for handwashing at the entrance of the hospital, where dozens of users daily seek medical services. Even so, few of them were washing their hands.

Miquelina José, a patient, said she did not wash her hands at the entrance to the health unit because she did not see the bucket, which in her opinion was poorly located.

Fátima Macuácua, on the other hand, said that she had been at the health centre from 6:00 a.m. until 10:00 a.m., and had washed her hands only once. She explained that the place where she was waiting to be attended to was far from handwashing bucket, and suggested that the hospital should have more buckets of water in the rooms.

Fatima’s suggestion was corroborated by other users, and ‘O País’, doing the rounds of the health unit, found, in addition to the one at the entrance, only one further bucket inside.

Even with the absence of buckets of water in the corridors and waiting rooms, the scenario worsened: people waiting to be assisted were completely ignoring the social distancing marks on the floor and benches.

Patient Belita Langa concluded that, all in all, it was “impossible to protect yourself from Covid-19” at the clinic.

“The hospital is full, yet we all want to be assisted. But there is no room to wait” without the risk of contracting the virus.

The very same problems are replicated in the Port Health Centre in Maputo, as well as in the Emergency Room of Maputo Central Hospital.

By Julieta Zucula

Source: O País