by Ester Mbathera
THE Erongo region emergency operation centre has put together a regional Covid-19 management plan, which it presented to a visiting task team at Walvis Bay on Wednesday.
The plan was proposed to
address the current situation in the region, as the framework to deal
with the Covid-19 crisis was found to be inadequate.
Lieutenant
colonel Aktofel Kwedhi, operations officer at the Erongo region
emergency operations centre, said the current management plan failed
because resources deployed to manage the novel coronavirus outbreak have
been overwhelmed by the increasing number of cases.
This has
left communities, especially at Walvis Bay, frustrated about the way the
regional and town leadership have been dealing with the situation.
“The
current situation is worrisome and this means that the implementation
of the universal strategic frameworks is not adequately addressing the
crisis in which the region finds itself,” said Kwedhi.
The Erongo
emergency operation centre crafted a new plan with the objectives to
mitigate the current situation at Walvis Bay and specifically
Kuisebmond, which is the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak.
According
to Kwedhi, the response plans involve clustering Kuisebmond into
smaller or manageable blocks for better incident management, evacuating
people out of restricted areas on a voluntary basis and decongesting
residents that are overcrowded to other places.
The decongestion
plan, which is aimed at reducing the number of people per residential
plot, is now under way, with the Municipality of Walvis Bay clearing
some open spaces in the community to be turned into temporary
settlements.
For the plan to work, Kwedhi stressed, it would
require combined efforts by all stakeholders and should be urgently
discussed with the involvement of communities for implementation.
According
to a report by the Erongo emergency operation centre, 60% of the people
who tested positive for the novel coronavirus at Walvis Bay are still
in their communities because of a lack of isolation facilities. The town
needs 600 isolation beds while the number of people who tested positive
for the novel coronavirus and need these facilities exceed 1 000.
Walvis
Bay has fewer than 400 beds for quarantine, while people that need
these facilities number more than 2 000, leaving most traced contacts of
infected people in their communities.
Fewer than 80 health workers have been deployed to deal with the pandemic in the region, particularly at Walvis Bay.
Logistical
resources such as ambulances, ventilators, swabbing kits, state
laboratories, hospitals for Covid-19 patients and other supporting
requirements deployed to support the operations are said to be limited
as well.
