New health minister calls infectious diseases hospital a ‘shell’
borders at those regions will be an issue as they are large and are problematic to man. With that he stated that regional authorities in Region Nine have had discussions with the federal police on the Brazilian side to conduct more monitoring of the borders. Dr Anthony stated that the issue with the border will be a challenge as a number of persons in the region are dual citizens and as such would be inclined to go over to Brazil and return illegally.
“One of the things that we will have to do is figure out a mechanism and may be restricted or limited ways of allowing crossing between the border but a controlled way so that we’re not shutting it down and forcing them to go the illegal way,” the minister said. Similarly with neighbouring Venezuela, he mentioned that he needs to communicate with the relevant authorities there to see what policies can be put in place.
He added that the turnaround time to ascertain whether someone is positive in those areas takes sometimes one week or more which he said is not good enough. “So certainly that is one of the things that has to change right now” he asserted. Further, he stated that he has recommended a number of measures to President Ali and shortly an announcement will be made.
Plans for better COVID-19
response
The minister disclosed that his plan includes building the capacity at the National Public Health Reference Laboratory to be able to deliver at least 300 tests in one day, and with that testing capacity, there will be wider coverage of testing. With regard to the plans for expanding testing, he iterated that the new government has been in communication with private hospitals to partner with them and provide them with testing kits from the ministry so that their testing capacity can be widened.
He also mentioned that they will employ the use of antibody testing as the ministry previously denied private entities permission to use the antibody tests. “One of the things we will be doing is coming up with a policy under which condition these tests can be used and advise accordingly,” Dr Anthony assured.
Minister Anthony stated that the previous government only had in stock a very limited amount of testing kits and as such, they have already started communication with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) to increase the procurement of these testing kits and are hoping to increase the number of testing kits in the country. “While you see the numbers currently climbing, we are taking the necessary measures to start to mitigate some of these things” he declared.
He also mentioned that a clinical team was put together which comprises of a number of doctors, who will prepare a national protocol relating to critical care of COVID-19 patients so that a protocol can be standardized. “In the short while we have been doing quite a lot of work to move some of these processes along” the minister said.