Covid-19 treatment facility for Gweru

29 Mar, 2020 - 00:03 0 Views
Covid-19 treatment facility for Gweru

The Sunday News

Munyaradzi Musiiwa, Midlands Correspondent
THE Gweru City Council has converted Gweru Isolation Hospital into a Covid-19 treatment facility as the city prepares for a possible outbreak after medical and nursing staff also underwent training at Wilkins Isolation Hospital in Harare.

In an interview, Gweru Mayor Councillor Josiah Makombe said the city’s medical staff now have the capacity to handle patients with suspected symptoms of Covid-19 after being acquainted with skills and knowledge in Harare.

Clr Makombe said the 30-bed health facility, which was formally designed for epidemic diseases and tuberculosis was also undergoing renovations to increase its holding capacity.

“We sent our medical and nursing staff to Harare for training and also to see how Harare City Council is managing Wilkins Isolation Hospital.

“We have opened Gweru Isolation Hospital to admit patience of Covid-19 or any suspected case.

“The hospital is a 30-bed facility but it is undergoing renovations to enable it to accommodate more people. We are also calling upon the corporate world to partner us to increase its capacity because we do not know what the future has in store for us.

“We are taking this pandemic seriously following the announcement by President Mnangagwa that it is now a national disaster. We are doing the best we can in our capacity to ensure that our city is safe. We also expect the Central Government to give us funding,” he said.

Clr Makombe said council was working on decongesting the Central Business District as well as the long distance bus termini.

“We do have a challenge in our city. Most people here are informal traders and they are crowding our streets. Most of these people are illegal vendors.

“We are going around conscientising people about Covid-19 and we want to decongest our pavements and bus termini, particularly Kudzanai,” he said.

Gweru Covid-19 rapid response team leader Dr Shakespeare Mureyani said the city was still to record a case although they are following up on all people suspected to have travelled from high risk areas.

Share This:

Survey


We value your opinion! Take a moment to complete our survey

This will close in 20 seconds