THE chairperson of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on
Health, Dr Ruth Labode, who tested positive for Covid-19 early this month, has
said the healing process for infected patients begins in the mind.
Dr Labode, who is MDC-T’s proportional representation
legislator for Matabeleland North Province decided to go for testing after
fellow Parliamentarians tested positive last month.
The MP and her husband tested Covid-19 positive on August
3. She has since urged all people who have tested positive to maintain a
positive outlook on life and their healing process and keep the faith.
Dr Labode said she felt she just had to go and get tested
for Covid-19 after some of her colleagues tested positive for the virus.
At the time, she felt flu-like symptoms.An RTD test gave her a negative result, which prompted her
to go and seek a PCR test at a private facility.
She made a trip to Mater Dei Hospital and arranged for
herself and her husband to get tested at a private laboratory, which guaranteed
test results in a short space of time.
Speaking via telephone from her Hillside suburb home, where
she is isolating, Dr Labode said her fears were confirmed when she tested
positive for the virus on August 3.
The flu-like symptoms she experienced before had made her
decide to start self-quarantining before testing.
Dr Labode is one of the many Zimbabweans who have tested
negative via the RDT test, only to test positive using the PCR, which is more
conclusive.
She said she is isolating with her husband and it is just
the two of them, although they got lonely sometimes and wished for the presence
of other people, they still enjoyed each other’s company.
Asked if boredom had not yet crept in, since her ‘‘workaholic’’
routine had been disrupted when she was confined home, Dr Labode said she was
still very busy as her work allowed her to work remotely.
She is due to retest today and her results will be ready by
Monday.
“It’s funny that I have just gotten used to the routine of
working from home very fast. I’m actually thinking it is not a very bad
arrangement after all. I am busy writing reports and attending virtual
meetings. Most of the time is spent in my study, my mind will be very busy so
boredom has not really visited. I may have been anxious about what I will be
doing at home the whole time, when I started quarantine, but in reality,
there’s been so much to do around the house and in my line of work, I have not
felt it,” she said.
“I have also been focusing my mind on my health and my
husband’s health and staying positive, and with the support of our networks who
are just a gadget away, it has been easy to stay connected with the people that
matter.”
Speaking of her personal experience, she said she had fear
at some point, and had breathing problems although she later learnt to take
charge of her mental health so as not to plunge into Covid-19-induced
depression.
“I had a lot of fear at some point, and at one time it was
late at night and I felt I could no longer breathe. Issues of faith came in and
I just woke up to kneel down and pray. I could take all sorts of pills and
herbal remedies, but God has to do the rest. I am now well, I am feeling okay,
so is my husband but we are just going to go for testing and are hoping for the
best,” she said.
She said the family’s pharmacy, which closed down after she
and her husband tested positive for the virus, was not yet open as test results
for some members of staff were not yet out.
Those whose results were out had tested negative.
“At the pharmacy, we are still not yet open as test results
for staff members are still pending and those whose test results have come are
not an enough staff complement that we can work with. Results pending are for
11 staff members,” said Dr Labode.
She called for awareness on the role of isolation of
Covid-19 patients saying a lot of stigma surrounded isolation.
“I just want people to know and understand that isolation
is not a punishment but is one sure way of not transmitting the virus to the
next person. People must understand that they must not stigmatise, they must
just do as instructed by health personnel and stay safe. When a person has come
back and is Covid-19 free, she or he can be treated the same. They are healed,”
she said.
Dr Labode urged other legislators to get tested for
Covid-19 before Parliament resumes on August 24.
She said enclosed spaces such as Parliament Building are a
conducive environment for the spread of Covid-19.
“I want to speak to the Speaker of Parliament, to recommend
that there be no Member of Parliament going back to resume duties on the 24th
of August without producing a PCR test certificate that shows one has tested
negative of Covid-19. We should all carry our certificates and ensure that we
protect each other, our families, our communities and the general public. The
parliament building due to its set up, is so enclosed and is good ground for
mass Covid-19 infections,” she said.
The MP called for the decongestion of Government offices
and said even those in the private sector must decongest and have only skeletal
staff working at workplaces, which have since been a hotspot for Covid-19
transmissions.
“I support those pushing the motion that Government offices
must close. These are abnormal times. We must not deliberately overwhelm our
already stretched frontliners by risking getting infected. Those that can work
from home must work from home, leaving only the most critical workers reporting
physically for work,” she said.
Dr Labode commended the Bulawayo City Rapid Response team
for what she described as a sterling job in contact tracing, despite having had
tested at a private facility.
Dr Labode said BCC needed its own Covid-19 testing
laboratory, saying it would help to speed up the issuance of test results to
people, beating the backlog caused by shortage of test kits at public testing
labs.
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