Covid-19: Good planning key to success

Obituaries
health talk:with Dr Johannes Marisa The infernal coronavirus continues to terrorise the world with impunity and no solutions seem imminent with medical professionals in a quandary about vaccine development or coming up with a presumptive treatment. The medical talk of treatment has circled around the use of unproven Hydroxychloroquine, Azithromycin, Vitamin C, Vitamin D Zinc […]

health talk:with Dr Johannes Marisa

The infernal coronavirus continues to terrorise the world with impunity and no solutions seem imminent with medical professionals in a quandary about vaccine development or coming up with a presumptive treatment. The medical talk of treatment has circled around the use of unproven Hydroxychloroquine, Azithromycin, Vitamin C, Vitamin D Zinc and Dexamethasone to mention, but a few. Clinical trials so far have not yielded much although patient testimonies seem to point to some success of some of the given drugs. We are inundated with calls daily from all corners from panicky citizens who are in need of prescriptions.

Planning is defined as an intellectual process which lays down an organisation’s objectives and develops various courses of action by which organisations can achieve those objectives. It chalks out exactly how to attain a specific goal. With Covid-19, the plan for sure was to contain and mitigate against the virus so that we will have less morbidity and mortality. Yes, we can pride in less number of deaths which as of Friday stood at 97. This figure is, of course, disputable considering that many of the deceased had post-mortem diagnoses. There are people who are dying in very remote areas in Zimbabwe where accessibility is almost impossible, making a huge margin of error. The current government pathologists at our government hospitals cannot cope with the pressure of post-mortems considering the sudden surge in home deaths. Public hospitals and clinics are grounded because of the current strikes by nurses and doctors.

Government, through different departments and institutions, set out strategic plans, tactical and operational plans. This clearly shows that there are many stakeholders that are required in the fight against Covid-19 and it is time to monitor all the necessary inputs so that deviants can be corrected in time.

Ideally, a monitoring and evaluation plan should be in place to track and access the results of the interventions throughout the life of a programme. The following stakeholders have important roles in Covid-19 and their contributions help contain the spread of the coronavirus and their lack of that will be catastrophic. All of us, therefore, are important in controlling the spread of Covid-19 and blaming government alone is not just unfair, but highly benighted.

Check whether you are not contributing to the spread of the virus. Let us look at the following categories:

General populace: Despite measures to contain the spread of Covid-19 from experts or government, there are so many people who just have a tendency to defy.

Hand-washing is for your safety, social distancing needs your brains only, staying at home needs your legs only, observing lockdowns needs only your head and legs, but you see people flouting these important public health measures. In locations some still believe that wearing a mask is taboo. Sooner than later, Covid-19 will be out of control in Zimbabwe as the case in South Africa where an average of 250 people die daily from Covid-19.

Local government: Ample time was there for seven months for local governments to prepare for their ratepayers. Harare City Council has at least 12 polyclinics and two major health facilities — Wilkins Infectious Diseases Hospital and Beatrice Road Infectious Diseases Hospital. Currently, activity is minimal with some medical staff not reporting for duties. Is that what we call good preparedness?

Health ministry: All immediate measures to contain and mitigate against the coronavirus are within the jurisdiction of the Health ministry. The availability of testing facilities, upgrading of hospital infrastructure and human resource provision in the public health sector are the prerogative of this important ministry. However, we still have inadequate testing, we have nurses and doctors on strike demanding personal protective equipment and reasonable salaries. The new Health minister Constantino Chiwenga has a daunting task ahead of him. We wish him the best in his new portfolio.

Central government: The government came up with a raft of measures which included Statutory Instruments 77 and 83 of 2020. These were very noble and we managed to a certain extent to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. Our national health facilities for sure cannot be compared with those in South Africa, so our strategy and anthem should be Prevention is better than cure. With the Statutory Instruments still in place, however, corruption and fraud remain big impediments with some people evading quarantine after buying themselves out while others use fraudulent papers at roadblocks.

It is not the time for deceit, people are getting infected in large numbers while the number of deaths is on the rise. Save our dear country from wherever you are, be it by educating others, by providing with resources or by being actively involved in the handling of patients or the deceased.

l Dr Johannes Marisa is a medical practitioner and a public health practitioner. He is also a Ph.D candidate. He can be accessed on: [email protected]