COVID-19 distress calls overwhelm BCC

THE Bulawayo City Council (BCC) health department says it is overwhelmed by the number of people making calls to its rapid response teams as the COVID-19 cases increase in the city.

BCC health director Edwin Sibanda said the municipality was forced to reassign some of its staff to cover gaps. He also said the local authority was facing challenges of vehicle and fuel shortages to cater for the demand.

“We are actually ferrying staff from clinics as well as nurses seconded to the Thorngrove Hospital for the purposes of nursing COVID-19 patients,” he said.

Sibanda warned members of the public to avoid gatherings which he blamed for fuelling the increase in COVID-19 cases.

Sibanda said they needed more rapid response staff in order to adequately cater for the city’s population.

“We wish we could have at least 10 rapid response teams because we usually get up to three so obviously that cannot cover the whole city as rapidly as they should do,” he said. He said they needed more vehicles and fuel.

Recently, council workers downed tools over poor salaries, a development that crippled critical services such as refuse collection and burials. Residents were failing to access primary healthcare as clinics remain closed.

Meanwhile, 783 new cases of COVID-19 and 52 deaths have been reported by the Health ministry countrywide.

Bulawayo metropolitan province reported 26 new cases, with active cases standing at 573, recoveries being at 110 with four deaths having been reported so far.

To date, the country has recorded 28 675 cases, 18 110 recoveries and 825 deaths.