THE Health and Child Care Ministry says Zimbabweans should always be on the lookout for their daily coronavirus disease (COVID-19) updates only.
By Kudakwashe Pembere
Health Ministry Secretary Dr Agnes Mahomva said this during a parliamentary portfolio committee on health briefing on Tuesday.
Her remarks come on the back of the public seeing the Ministry of Media, Information and Broadcasting Services’ Twitter handle and other sections of the media, social or not, having disseminated information which would likely cause panic.
The Information Ministry has since corrected the information with guidance from the Health Ministry. That said this calls for the other information dissemination stakeholders to consult with the Health Ministry before sending out information or better yet the Health Ministry to take the lead.
I would like to simply encourage (you) our parliamentarians to watch out for our COVID-19 updates we are providing daily. And hence you should not be saying we do not have information.
“I’m truly encouraging you to look at those updates because we would like you to help us continue disseminating information including some of the updates we give on specific cases what we continue to see in the media, social media that they are positive yet they are not,” she said.
Dr Mahomva said currently, there is no Confirmed case of COVID-19.
[pullquote]“We don’t have any of that and we are very proud as a ministry that we are doing everything we can with the little we have. You don’t have to have billions or millions but doing the right thing that is you disseminating the right information and certainly not touching your face, washing your hands with water and making sure you are not shaking hands unnecessarily and all that,”[/pullquote] she said.
Meanwhile, she said the Global Fund is keen to support Zimbabwe with its preparedness and response plan on COVID-19.
“The Global Fund said they are available to assist and we should just put in our request. So what we when we got it last week, we did just that. So I can’t tell you how much and so on. We are waiting for the details. Our team sat and met. If it’s about reprogramming, they will tell us. If it’s about new ones they will tell us. This is something that is unfolding,” Dr Mahomva said.
Dr Mahomva said they gave with the Global Fund the same budget they shared with other partners.
“We basically immediately gave them the plan that we shared with our partners. When we put it together this is the plan that has USD5, 2 million for our response. They can pick items from there or if they are happy to pick the whole lot that’s good as well. We just felt in order to move fast, we should not be reinventing the wheel. Let’s just take the plan that is there, that is costed and share. They will tell us what they want to fund and where the funding is coming from and we move forward with it,” said the Health Secretary.
That said this calls for the other information dissemination stakeholders to consult with the Health Ministry before sending out information or better yet the Health Ministry to take the lead.
