CPJ calls for a thorough investigation into killing of Mozambican journalist João Chamusse - ...
File photo: Noticias
Beira Central Hospital (HCB) is cancelling, as of next Monday, the daily 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. patient visits as a Covid-19p prevention measure.
HCB Clinical Director Ana Tambo announced yesterday that meal deliveries to patients would be confined to one person only at 7.30 a.m. and 1.30 p.m..
Routine consultations will also be cancelled, but emergency services and elective surgery would continue. In the latter case, the companions of patients who are able to walk and communicate without help will not be allowed to enter.
Ana Tambo explained that companions waiting outside the hospital would, in compliance with the measures recommended by the health sector, be urged to maintain a minimum personal distance of one metre.
Scientific Committee established
The HCB has just created a Scientific Committee for the Prevention and Control of Coronavirus to help health unit management monitor the disease.
Committee chairman Leonel Andela said the team would number ten, and acknowledged that it faced several challenges, one of which related to external consultations, because many were scheduled long in advance.
He took the opportunity to appeal to the wider public to also follow individual and collective hygiene measures in the face of the disease’s ubiquity.
Situation remains under control
Health authorities maintain the situation is under control in Beira, with the prevention, screening and testing of suspected cases being observed.
District director for Health, Gender and Social Action, Fino Massalambane, told a press conference that all 20 health units in the city were already prepared, with each centre having created a team to attend to patients with flu symptoms and subject them to screening and testing.
He revealed that 383 people had already been screened, of which four samples have been analysed at the National Institute of Health (INS), in Maputo, whose laboratory returned negative results.
Among those screened were individuals from neighbouring countries, especially those in which the pandemic has been reported, such as Zimbabwe.
Other than that, the source indicated that teams of technicians from the sector and final-year students of medicine at the Universities Jean Piaget and Católica de Moçambique and from the Alberto Chipande Higher Institute of Science Technologies, all based in Beira, were reinforcing awareness in communities.
People are advised to avoid crowded places such as beaches, clubs, squares, markets, bus stops and commercial establishments. In this context, neighbourhoods such as Chaimite, Praia-Nova, Maquinino, Ponta-Gêa, Macuti, Estoril and Matacuane warrant special attention.
Massalambane reiterated the need for all those screened to comply with the quarantine guidelines.
“We want people to understand this, because screening 383 people is not an easy task. Right now, the city of Beira is doing well, but we must be extremely careful. Rest assured that, if there is a positive case, we will be the first to announce it,” he promised.
He stressed that personnel in industrial units, public and private institutions, bus terminals and semi-collective passenger transport facilities should scrupulously wash their hands with soap.
Massalambane also condemned the wearing of gloves and masks by people without any signs of illness, because these, he said, when poorly applied, could themselves be sources of transmission of the disease.
Appeals against disinformation
Yesterday morning, an audio clip circulating on social media suggested that a Malawian with coronavirus symptoms had, after being admitted to the Ponta-Gêa Urban Health Centre, taking flight back into the community.
Massalambane denied that this was true, and clarified that a 30-year-old Mozambican driver, who had studied in Zambia and Malawi and lived in Nhaconjo, on the outskirts of Beira, was admitted to the Ponta-Gêa centre.
This patient had been subjected to screening at the flu care centre but had then gone on his way.
“Someone saw him being taken to a specific location because of the flu and wrongly concluded that he had the coronavirus. But he did not run away, as is maintained,” Massalambane explained.
For this reason, he appealed to everyone to combat the misinformation that can undermine all prevention efforts.
“The health sector is totally open to any information or clarification,” he said.
Leave a Reply
Be the First to Comment!
You must be logged in to post a comment.
You must be logged in to post a comment.