08 Sep 2020

North West district has been hailed for doing well in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic and for upholding the pandemic protocols.

Giving an overview of HIV/AIDS and COVID-19 in the district during the launch of month of prayer against HIV/AIDS and COVID-19, Regional Health Management Team (RHMT) coordinator, Dr Malebogo Kebabonye observed that members of the community conducted themselves in an acceptable manner and adhered to health safety measures in place.

She appreciated that the district was doing well in facilitating preventative measures citing the cordial collaboration with law enforcement agencies to monitor and ensure compliance.

During spot checks, Dr Kebabonye said, they had realised that 80 per cent of the communities members including different entities were doing their best to ensure compliance to set

COVID-19 regulations such as maintaining registration, temperature checks, wearing of masks and washing of hands.

She informed the gathering that despite efforts made by the country to control and contain the disease, COVID-19 remained a threat until cure was found.

She mentioned that all the patients from the district had recovered and discharged adding that currently they had 19 suspected cases in quarantine.

Dr Kebabonye also acknowledged members of the community for following health precautions during home quarantines noting that out of the 143 people in quarantines, 21 were on home quarantine and all had recovered except one.

Members of the community were encouraged to continue upholding the health protocols because failure to be compliant would pose a risk of spreading coronavirus.

They were encouraged to always demand to be registered, sanitised and checked temperatures before they could be assisted in any organisation.

Dr Kebabonye said COVID-19 was easy to spread and as such encouraged proper wearing of masks and good hygiene practices.

She said since COVID-19 outbreak, they had seen 67 per cent decrease in diseases such as flu as compared to the past two years.  With regard to diarrhea for children under the age of five, she said they recorded 50 per cent decrease and attributed the achievements to proper hygiene practices.

“We should all appreciate that the new normal has come with positive things. If we can continue practicing proper hygiene, we can win most of the diseases,” she added.

On the issue of HIV/AIDS, Dr Kebabonye revealed that the district was making strides even though they were struggling to meet the set targets.

She said the district had targeted to test 6 000 people quarterly, but had managed 4 560 which translated to 76 per cent.

She raised concerned that people were not coming forth to test for HIV/AIDS noting that in all their tests campaigns, women were leading while men were still dragging their feet with 60 per cent of those who tested being women.

On ARV treatment target, she said they targeted to have 97 per cent of patients on treatment of which they had enrolled 14 581 patients by end of June this year.

She said the RHMT rolled out ‘treat all program’ to all health facilities in the district adding that they had also started distributing ARV to foreigners.

The district was said to be doing well in prevention of mother-to-child transmission to child target as mothers were coming forth to register in large numbers.

Dr Kebabonye thanked churches and non-governmental organizations such as Tebelopele and BOCAIP for joining forces with health officials to reach out to the communities. ENDS