Mobile medical teams conducting tests in Salalah

Mobile medical teams have been setup in Salalah to support the country’s relentless efforts to contain the spread of coronavirus.

These teams are apart from the examinations done at the public health centres and hospitals, said a source at the Directorate General of Health Services in Dhofar.

Currently there are two teams comprising six to seven members including medic, paramedic and administrative staff that visit different locations on everyday.

As of now it has done several rounds of examinations at easily accessible places like Auqad, Sanaya, Aqeel Mosque in central Salalah, Basameen mosque and Awjal Industries near the Rawasco Centre.

A paramedic involved in the testing teams said, initially not many people were coming out for tests due to their own fears, as what will happen if they were diagnosed and some of them were deliberately hiding their symptoms of cough, cold and fever.

“Some expatriate workers were apprehensive about some legal action as their visas had expired. After being assured that we are here only to examine the disease, they became comfortable and everyday we are collecting some 30 to 35 samples”, he said.

The samples collected are sent to Muscat and the result comes in three to four days. The teams keep the contact details of the people examined at the camps for follow-up purposes.

“Not everyone’s sample is collect, as many who turn up have no sign of COVID-19. The samples of only suspected cases after examination are collected”.

Several functionaries of the MOH are part of this team, including the Emergency and Crisis Department, Medical Response and Public Health; and Relief and Shelter Centre of the governorate.

The idea behind the mobile camps is to include more and more people under the test ambit to rule out every possibility of the virus and block the COVID-19 chain.

Anybody, who wants to be tested can visit the testing camps or get the appropriate levels of counselling and to the extent that they meet the requirements based on the protocols, the samples are collected.