THE Gwanda District taskforce on Covid-19 has appealed for resources to help in the fight against Covid-19.

Speaking yesterday during a district coordination meeting on Covid-19 mitigation interventions, Gwanda District Development Coordinator, Ms Kiliboni Ndou said the district had made significant progress in the fight against Covid-19 but there is need for more chemicals to continue disinfecting the town. She said there was also need to equip isolation centres and quarantine facilities to ensure they have Intensive Care Units.

Ms Ndou said at the moment the district does not have the capacity to handle a Covid-19 patient.

In an addition to all health centres in the district being identified as isolation centres, Gwanda has also identified two quarantine facilities that will house deportees returning to the district.

“There is still a number of resources that we need as a district to help in the fight against Covid-19. Transportation is a major challenge as this work requires us to travel to the rural areas for various programmes but we don’t have vehicles. Of late we have been receiving deportees that have been released from Plumtree and transporting them to their villages has been a challenge. These people also need to be fed before they are released into the community,” she said.

“The disinfection exercises have been going on well but we are running low on hydrogen peroxide and we need assistance. Our isolation and quarantine facilities need to be equipped with machinery and blankets. All health centres in the district have an isolation point and they need to be equipped. We also need protective clothing which is in short supply. “

Ms Ndou urged stakeholders including NGOs, the business community, mining companies among others to assist the district.

“We are grateful as PPC will help us equip an isolation centre at the Gwanda Provincial Hospital while How Mine will help with an isolation centre at Joshua Mqabuko Polytechnic College while Blanket Mine will assist at Phakama Clinic. However more work has to be done in other isolation points. At the moment we don’t have the capacity to handle a Covid-19 patient as a district,” she said.

Speaking during the same meeting Gwanda Environmental Health Training Officer, Mr Clever Ncube said Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Polytechnic and Guyu Vocational Training Centre have been identified as quarantine facilities where deportees will be housed before they rejoin the communities. He said the facilities will accommodate the deportees after they have been released from isolation centres in Plumtree, Beitbridge and Bulawayo.

Mr Ncube said the deportees were supposed to go through a health centre and be cleared at local level before they rejoin the community. He said the deportees had to be discouraged from rushing to rejoin the communities before they were cleared.

“We have disinfected the CBD, townships, churches, institutions and we are disinfecting closed places but we appeal for more chemicals to disinfect roads. The Gwanda District Hospital needs equipment as it doesn’t have an Intensive Care Unit. Every health facility in the district must have an isolation centre and equipment is required,”