A Chinese doctor in the country says Zimbabweans have nothing to panic given they have a warm climate and clean air on their side in the event that Corona virus strikes.
By Kudakwashe Pembere
Dr Yuandong Jiang, a cardiologist from the 17th Chinese Cohort in the country said while this no reason to celebrate, Zimbabwe nonetheless needs to be prepared.
“You see Zimbabwe is a beautiful place. The weather is good. There is enough sunshine good enough to kill the viruses and bacteria because these pathogens don’t like the sun. Also the air here is clean. It’s unlike China now where its winter time and they are approaching Spring soon.
“Don’t be so nervous. Life is fantastic. Zimbabwe is safe. Don’t worry too much. Don’t hate Chinese people. Don’t be afraid to touch them. I am not saying kiss or hug. But looking at this picture. Please eradicate prejudice and stigma.”
He said Zimbabwe financial demand for preparing for the Coronavirus disease is too little as the government needs to prepare not only for this SARS-like global outbreak but other disasters.
“This is related with the government’s decision. If you want funding for self-quarantining of persons, giving the diagnosis, treatment, it means government should pay more attention to the public. Also Zimbabwean people need to understand what the government is serving them and really want to do for themselves and the public health services. This depends on the cooperation of the understanding between the government and the people.
“This is very important. We never know the next virus outbreak occurs in the world. Maybe today, it’s in China, tomorrow it can be in Zimbabwe or Zambia. We should pay more attention to virus prevention and treatment. This is why is I said you should give more budgets. It’s not enough. We should do more for the public service,” he said.
Asked about the suggested amount of money, he said It depends on the public and the government’s ability to realise the threat caused by the virus or bacteria or disaster or other natural disasters.
“If you want to fight the disease, the natural disasters, the traffic accidents, we need to prepare. I’m not going to say let’s not focus on the virus only,” said Dr Jiang.
Meanwhile, Health and Child Care Ministry Director for Epidemiology and Disease Control Dr Portia Manangazira said of the USD5, 2 million they budgeted, some funding came from UNICEF and the World Health Organisation. She said Government through the Finance Ministry is showing commitment in chipping inn.
“We have been given a bit of funding from UNICEF in terms of the risk communication and development of a communication strategy,” Dr Manangazira said.
Dr Manangazira explained that they have a prioritization budget done further to the USD5, 2 million budget putting the immediate requirements, the intermediate and then the long term requirements. “For example you remember we were talking about refurbishments of some hospitals so that they are up to date with infection prevention and control. So that will be in the long term but intermediate requirements will be more in terms of the patient management which is what we are doing now.
“The other urgent ones is the assessment of ports of entry which is ongoing and moving. And as I said some partners have chipped in into assisting. For example WHO immediately released resources for the national coordination meetings and that has since happened. So we had our interagency coordinating committee on health combined with our national taskforce for preparedness and response. So those two meetings happened on the 24th of January.
“Then we had two interministerial meeting one for the northern region and the other for the southern region. So those have already happened with support from WHO. So the budget as we look at it now is much less than USD5, 2 million but we still have forwarded that adjusted budget to the Ministry of Finance because Government is also keen to support the coronavirus preparedness and response,” she said.
She explained that the training workshop ending today was a training of trainers who are expected to cascade what they learnt to other health workers.
“This meeting is different from the one last week because now we are training the cadres on the front line of treating patients, detecting and confirming in terms of the laboratories and the actual management of patients. So this is why we convened central hospitals, on the public health sector side, then the infectious disease hospitals and the private sector hospitals and then our national reference lab, the city health lab and then the private sector labs. So we are now talking patient care,” said Dr Manangazira.
