

RDC: CMR COVID-19 Bulletin No. 50 – Situation Epidemiologique COVID-19 a Kinshasa, en Ituri, au Nord et Sud-Kivu, Haut-Katanga et au Kongo Central (12.05.2020)














Today the Parliament dropped the “INTERIM REPORT OF THE PARLIAMENTARY SUB-COMMITTEE ON HEALTH ON COVID-l9” . This is interesting that it comes now. As there are MPs whose busy praising the President and his work on it. While this interim report says a lot about what is lacking. The Report is only 14 pages, so its not a deep dive, but a small fragments of what is out there. This gives an indication of how it really is.
PPE:
“Whereas personal protective equipment is the only guarantee for health workers and security personnel’s protection against viral transmission, there is acute shortage of masks, hand gloves, foot ware, disposable aprons, disinfectants and sanitizers across the board. In some facilities, health workers buy their own items for example at Kawempe National Referral Hospital. At Masaka Regional Referral Hospital which has five (5) COVID-l9 cases was supplied with only two (2) pieces of N-95 masks, Bwera Hospital has never received any supplies while in some facilities, health workers improvise through recycling of masks for days as supplies have not been received” (Interim Report, P1-2, 12.05.2020).
So, when the public, MPs and others praise the President and his team for the response to how they handled the COVID-19 pandemic and the needs. This here is showing how the Parliament could easily see that the Ministry of Health and the Hospitals doesn’t have enough PPE. Which is needed to secure the health-care workers and patients. That says a lot about how the state has dealt with this. Because, this should be one of the first priorities to secure the front-liners in the battle.
Quarantine Centres:
“All districts visited have established quarantine centres which are mainly in schools” (…) “The centres lack water, mattresses, access to sanitary facilities and people in quarantine centres buy their own food. None of the quarantine centres had received any material or financial support from the centre” (Interim Report, P: 2, 12.05.2020).
It’s good that the districts has made quarantine centres. This is good work by the state and in such a haste. While, they should have provided food, water and sanitation for the ones quarantined. That should be essential to ensure the food safety and proper shelter, as they are not allowed to leave the premises and not spread the virus. Therefore, its a lack financial support is dire and should be a priority, Unless, they want to risk these people to breach the quarantine to buy matooke, posho and beans. Then, its sort of pointless!
On testing:
“A11 facilities visited had systems in place to screen people. However, most facilities lacked the equipment such as temperatures guns” (…) “Testing Kits are also in short supply and transportation of the samples is a challenge. There have been efforts to trace the contacts however, full contact tracing is difficult to achieve” (Interim Report, P: 3, 12.05.2020).
This here is the key to understand how the spread is moving. When you struggle with testing. You struggle with the basics. This is not a unique issue, even the United Kingdom and United States struggles with this. Therefore, Uganda isn’t alone, but its a worry that its like this. When this is the key to figure out how rampant it is and where the virus has been spread. This should be the thing that opens the door and secure society. As the Ministry of Health would have an understanding of how grand scale the testing is and what scope it has. As there is questions about how big of a scope the state has done, when they struggle to have enough testing kits and transport it.
Human Resource:
“Much as Ministry of Health was given money to recruit staff, save for Jinja and Mbale RRHs, the recruited staff are not yet deployed meaning that the existing staff is stretched. Most facilities have re-deployed staff from different departments of their units to specifically manage COVID -19 in some health facilities” (…) “Despite Parliament approving UGX 80,000 per person per day as risk allowance, most Health Workers and security personnel at the forefront of handling COVID-19 related issues have not received their allowances to date” (Interim Report, P: 3-4, 12.05.2020).
Again, the state haven’t done what they need to do to recruit needed staff to run sufficiently. Both the Health Care Centres and Hospitals need help from the Ministry to do this. Instead, they have the staff stretched and that will weaken the performance. This combined with the other reports shows the lack of work put into it.
I just looked at the issues directly hitting the Ministry of Health, the front-liners and the ones who has the challenge directly. I have not looked into the financial part of it. As that has been discussed elsewhere and this seems more as a priority. While the accountability and transparency is important. That is why the state should be transparent, but don’t expect that. As there is a wastage of funds and suddenly it disappears. That always happens… Just await another tender scandal in the making soon.
Therefore, this is enough for now. The report states the needs for a more thorough plan, more focus on details, procurement and securing the ones in need. Because, this hurts the whole system and only showing the weaknesses, which are there. Peace.


