02 Feb 2021

Departmental focal persons have been accused of failing to deliver to expectations.

  North West District Commissioner Mr Keolopile Leipego made the accusation in an interview with BOPA  saying his office  and that of  the District Health Management Team (DHMT) were inundated  with queries when departments experienced positive COVID-19 cases despite having focal persons. 

He said focal persons were trained to be liaisons with the DHMT on all issues concerning the COVID 19 pandemic as well as contact tracers and response focal people for their offices.

The training was to ensure continued service delivery and effective response within departments.

They were also expected to conduct initial screening critical to identifying threat posed, he said. 

   Mr Leipego therefore appealed to DHMT to organise refresher training for the focal persons to enable them to execute their duties in the fight against COVID 19 pandemic.

He said refresher training was ideal considering that some trained officers had been transferred while others found it difficult to take action because of anxiety and confusion caused by the pandemic.

Mr Leipego noted that the district was experiencing high numbers of cases hence the need for all structures to be visible to facilitate preventative measures and ensure protocol compliance.

“We have observed that some institutions recorded positive cases within their workplaces and thus caused panic and confusion because some phoned asking whether they should temporarily close offices while some called DMHT to come and conduct contact tracing,” he said.

He advised employees not to panic explaining that offices could only be closed upon advice from DHMT. 

The district commissioner urged heads of department to lead by example and engage their subordinates to create awareness on issues of COVID-19.

He expressed concern that compliance to health protocols had dropped drastically despite extended efforts to create awareness.

Offices which experienced an influx of customers daily had been advised to disinfect/sanitize offices/surfaces regularly but some were not doing that, he said.

In a recent meeting, DHMT acting coordinator, Dr Sandra Maripe-Ebutswe said she was equally concerned that some departments panicked when they recorded positive cases and were eager to close offices even when not primary contacts.

Mostly, she said, departments phoned requesting to be tested but sometimes could not be assisted because health personnel were overwhelmed. 

Dr Maripe-Ebutswe said efforts had been made efforts to train focal persons with a view that they would calm situations in their workplaces but that was not happening. 

She was hopeful that refresher training would make a difference.ends