By Munyaradzi Madziwa
I am an inmate at Bulawayo Polytechnic Quarantine
Centre. I arrived back in Zimbabwe
through Victoria Falls on May 14, 2020 and I have gone through a hair-raising
experience in two of Zimbabwe’s quarantine centres.
I have decided to share this experience in a bid to appeal
to authorities to correct the situation in these centres which is scary and
obviously a driver of the exponential growth in Zim’s Covid cases which we have
started to notice.
It is not by coincidence that the latest figures that have
pushed Zimbabwe Covid cases six times up are coming from quarantine centres.
There are lax conditions and the probability is that many inmates enter the
centres without infection and then get it there.
My scary story started at the border at Vic Falls where a
Ministry of Health officer demanded US$10 or the ZW$ equivalent to disinfect my
car. He threatened that I either part with that amount or get the car impounded
until after 21 days. I leave that story for another day.
I was then admitted at a quarantine center at Mosia Tunya
Secondary School. It got scarier! I was ushered into a classroom and told to
find any space that was free. There were people sleeping on top of desks, some
on the floor and each had a single blanket.
I queried to the ushers the rationale of putting me in the
same room with 11 people whose places of origin or Covid -19 statuses I didn’t
know. I got no response.
In the end I retired to my car where I spent the next four
days sleeping.
There was no Ministry of Health official to attend to us
until mid-day the following day and when they came they were heavily clad in
Personal Protective Equipment. They sanitized every step of their way as they
came in to test new arrivals.
There was a crowd behind me as I approached the health desk
to get my initial test. Everyone in the crowd was clamouring to get tested or
to get their results. Some had been in quarantine for 26 days. The majority did
not have face masks and there were no sanitisers in sight.
I am now 16 days in the quarantine and yet this became my
last contact with health workers.
A few days later on May 18, I was transferred from Mosia
Tunya to Bulawayo and inmates were ferried there in crowded buses for the 6
hour journey. Facilities in Bulawayo were no better as we were crammed in dusty
classrooms at Bulawayo Polytechnic. The conditions there are an incentive for
any self-respecting individual to escape.
Sadza is served with chunks every day.
Although quarantine days are stipulated at 21, no one ever
knows exactly when they will come out because some have been in for more than
26 days.
In Bulawayo we filled countless forms from all security
arms of the State but none from the Ministry of Health. The forms were from Prisons,
Intelligence and the Police. No health official has visited us since my arrival
here on May 18. There was an incident where a young man developed shingle
blisters on one side of his face. Health officials were called to attend but
they never came. Inmates ended up getting whatever medication they could lay
their hands on to help the man.
The following are the serious shortcomings that urgently
need redress in the quarantine centres;
1. Quarantine
centres are overcrowded. There is no social distancing. Inmates queue for meals
and they have meals in crowded dining halls.
2. Old and fresh
inmates who are not yet tested are crammed in the same rooms. Escapees are
recaptured and taken back into the centre without any testing or screening. How
then do we ascertain the source of infection if any of us eventually tests
positive?
3. Tests results
take weeks to come and in the meantime new inmates and captured escapees are
added to the mix. How then do you ascertain that newly infected individuals are
not released into community on invalid results?
4. Social Welfare officers, Police officers spend the day
interacting with inmates with little or no PPE. These individuals at the end of
the day retreat to their homes as new shifts come in, albeit with no testing or
even screening.
How then do we ensure that COVID-19 doesn’t leave the camp
into the community each day? Ever wondered why sporadic cases are now rising up
in the communities?
A case in point is that Botswana has a total of 35 confirmed
Covid-19 cases. We on the other hand are now confirming daily new cases from
mixed quarantine camps and attributing these to their place of origin. What is
the mathematical probability therefore of Botswana exporting 10 cases to
Zimbabwe unless we are denying the authenticity of their reported cases?
It also baffles the mind that the COVID-19 issue is a
health issue but the departments that we see at the quarantine centres on a
daily basis have nothing to do with medical issues but security.
Those high Government officials who are not making the
right decisions must realise that Covid-19 does not discriminate between the
rich and the poor or the powerful and the down to earth. Their poor handling of
these centres will catch up with them and haunt even them or their children.
In conclusion I recommend that there be a systemic process
of testing and monitoring of returning citizens and their gradual reintegration
into communities.
The Ministry of Health must enforce the same standard
requirements i.e.; wearing protective masks, sanitising and social distancing
in the isolation centers just as they apply outside.
There is also a critical need to monitor returnees daily
for clinical signs and symptoms that may point to Covid-19 infection. My
rudimentary understanding of the quarantine rationale stems from the virus’s
incubation period which may delay early detection. There is therefore in my
view a need to take daily temperatures for all quarantined and to limit
interaction and thereby reduce cross infection.
Without applying these conditions quarantine becomes
useless. It makes little sense for one to get into a quarantine center free of
the virus and then come out infected.
Yet this is what is exactly happening in our quarantine
centres which are devoid of the necessary preventive conditions. Masvingo Mirror
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