OVER 30 000 plus frontline health workers in the country
are vulnerable to coronavirus after government reportedly ignored a court order
to provide them with personal protective equipment (PPE), with healthcare
providers warning that this was a ticking time bomb.
Already, two heath workers in Bulawayo, identified as case
numbers 15 and 19 last week tested positive for the novel virus but thousands
are facing increased risk as they deal with the rising number of returning
residents from COVID-19 hotspots and community transmission cases.
“The PPE situation remains very critical. We have not
received any positive feedback from health workers countrywide (that government
had started supplying the equipment),” Fortune Nyamande, the chairman of the
Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR) told NewsDay
yesterday.
He said there has been no indication from government how it
wanted to proceed. “We are consulting with our lawyers how to seek enforcement
of the High Court order in view of the continued exposure of health workers.”
The exposure of health workers to coronavirus has become an
issue of concern internationally. More than 27 000 health workers in Spain have
tested positive for coronavirus, according to that country’s emergency
co-ordination centre. The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in the
United States figures show that nearly 9 300 healthcare workers contracted
COVID-19 during the course of their work and 27 have died in that country while
in Italy, more than 41 doctors died while over 5 000 doctors and nurses had
tested positive to the deadly virus. In the United Kingdom, at least 100
healthcare workers have died of coronavirus, according to Nursing Notes, a
platform run by nurses in that country.
In Zimbabwe, on April 14 the High Court ordered the
government to provide personal protective equipment for frontline health
workers across the country to protect them against contracting COVID-19 while
attending to patients after ZADHR went to court to argue that the State was
putting them at risk by not providing them with PPE.
The government was also not carrying out tests on the
frontline health personnel, putting them and patients at risk of infection,
while ZADHR argues that it did not use proper equipment to screen a few.
“A few health workers were screened using the rapid
diagnostic test kits last week. The numbers are still very low and almost
insignificant,” Nyamande said.
“The tests used are also not the diagnostic PCR tests which
are the gold standard in diagnosing COVID-19. All registered health workers in
Zimbabwe are at risk, both private and public practitioners.”
Zimbabwe Nurses Association (Zina) president, Enock Dongo
told NewsDay that failure by government to avail PPE to heath workers was
creating a breeding ground for the fast-spreading virus.
“Government officials will be quick to point out that no
health worker in the country has tested positive for the virus or is affected
in one way or another. It is easy to say that but mind you, none of the
essential healthcare workers have been tested so far for COVID-19,” Dongo said.
He said efforts to raise the issue with government had
fallen on deaf ears as none of the senior government officials was keen on
taking the association’s advice seriously.
“Zina has been advising government to ensure that there is
testing of the nurses who are the first instance persons when it comes to the
coronavirus. Nurses are the first ones who observe the patients and check them
every time they go to a hospital with symptoms of the coronavirus.
“If those nurses contract the virus, they are in a very big
risk of spreading it around themselves and among patients and the only way to
avoid this is to test them and be sure that none of them have contracted the
virus.
The challenge is that no one in government is listening to
our advice,” Dongo added.
The Zina boss said the few kits that his organisation’s
members had received were inadequate, with some of the members mostly working
without the protective gear.
“The kits for personal protection are highly adequate. Most
of our members are exposed to this pandemic because there are no protective
clothing kits. Testing of nurses has been poor so far. It seems nobody cares at
all.
“If the nation fails to take care of those that are in the
first line of defence, it means very little care is taken about all the other
people who are also likely to contract the virus. We are worried as Zina as to
why government is failing to focus on those issues that concern health
workers,” Dongo said.
He warned that coronavirus cases in the country would
likely spike if government continuously fails to act.
“We have said a lot and nobody seems to be listening.
Should we continue as if everything is normal. We are at a high risk of having
a massive rise in the numbers of those that have the virus,” Dongo said.
“We have to look at the spread ratios of this pandemic. If
we don’t contain it at the first level and we leave nurses so exposed, they
will infect others who will in turn infect others and the infection chain will
continue to grow. In the end, we will have an unmanageable situation which we
could have avoided had our government listened to what we tell them.” Newsday
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