POSTPONE TRIPS TO CHINA - HEALTH MINISTER

MBABANE- Minister of Health Lizzie Nkosi has advised emaSwati wishing to travel to Mainland China to at least postpone their trips until the corona virus is fully controlled.

Many emaSwati travel to China for various reasons but mostly for business. Some travellers include students who have enrolled for different courses in the Chinese universities. There are also businesspeople who purchase their stock in China while others travel to the Asian country for holiday.

The minister issued the advice in her capacity as a concerned liSwati in an interview yesterday.
She stated that currently, there was no directive to ban travel from the World Health Organisation (WHO). As a result, the minister said her ministry had not issued any directive concerning a ban.

Outbreak

Minister Nkosi acknowledged that there were countries which had decided to ban travels to China following the outbreak of the virus that has killed thousands of people.

“My advice is that people should postpone their trips to China until the virus is fully controlled. The next option is to look for safe places before they can travel to China,” she said.
Nkosi assured emaSwati that the ministry was doing all it could to manage the virus. She stated that they made sure that people travelling to Eswatini were examined before leaving China.

The minister mentioned that travellers were also examined when they arrived in South Africa to ensure that the virus was detected early.  She said the ministry always made sure that suspected people were monitored on a day to day basis.

“We will continue to be vigilant. I cannot be sure when the virus will be fully controlled but we hope it won’t take long,” she said. Recently, emaSwati heaved a sigh of relief after the country was cleared of the corona virus.

The relief came after results of a suspected case, which was indentified last Friday, came out negative for Covid-19.
Meanwhile, if there is one group of people more likely to contract the coronavirus should a case be detected in the country, it is health maintenance officials who are also responsible for cleaning and removing waste.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), CoV is a large family of viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV).
A novel coronavirus is a new strain that has not been previously identified in humans. 

Eswatini, just like many countries around the world, is on high alert to ensure that people coming in from any other country, especially China, Taiwan and Singapore are screened.

However, at the Pigg’s Peak Government Hospital, maintenance officials who normally do the cleaning of the hospital fear that they have not been informed enough about how to prevent contraction of the disease.

Many of them claimed they were not fully aware of how exactly the virus was transmitted and that they needed expert training on this from medical personnel, as opposed to receiving pieces of paper informing them.

Notices

“All that they have given us are notices which are not easy to read,” they said.
They admitted that some of them still struggled to read or write, especially when complicated medical terms were used.
The officials said they wanted to have open sessions such as workshops where they could ask relevant questions as opposed to just having memos placed on walls.

An official who asked not to be mentioned said the situation was scary because some of the officials were scared of contracting the disease.
He said in the case of tuberculosis (TB) they had been trained on how to prevent its transmission or contracting it.
“It appears they are not treating the coronavirus with the same urgency,” he said.

Another official also complained that this was also the case in places like Mkhuzweni Health facility, which is one of the busiest in the country.
The cleaners complained that the only information they received from the Ministry of Health was a notice stating that ‘all health facilities need to be prepared for patients with the suspected or confirmed 2019 novel coronavirus ‘.
Yesterday, when the facilities were visited, notices had been placed at the gate with the words, ‘Coronavirus alert’. This was addressed to the members of the public.

Screening

The notice was further described as a screening tool to detect possible coronavirus infection.
Also, the notice further states; ‘Give a mask to any patient presenting with cough, sneezing symptoms’.

Attempts were made to reach the Director of Health Services Dr Vusi Magagula and the Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Health Dr Simon Zwane, but their cellphones rang unanswered.

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