‘Disabled need more care in Covid-19 prevention’

COMMUNITIES should pay particular attention to the needs of people living with disabilities in the prevention of Covid -19, a disability watchdog has advised.

Disability Rights Watch (DRW) said there was need for proper management of Covid-19 prevention among people living with disabilities.

DRW Programme Coordinator, Bruce Chooma, said community involvement in the management of people living with disabilities was important because Covid-19 would not be wiped out soon.

He was speaking in an interview in Livingstone.

“Covid-19 is here to stay. It therefore calls for community based initiatives of how to manage the people living with disabilities so that they are not at risk,” he said.

Mr Chooma said people living with disabilities were in need of information and sensitization from those involved in preventing the spread of Covid-19.

“The blind always have contact with their handler, washing their hands, and sanitising the devices is paramount just like those that are on wheels chairs, they equally need special attention and information,” he said.

Mr Chooma said it was for this reason that people should be helped with enough Covid-19 personal protective equipment such as liquid soap, face masks, sanitizers and other necessary support.

He said some of them could have movement and sight constraints, hence the need for communities to be considerate in terms of social distancing.

“The contact or handlers are also at risks of Covid-19. What we have discovered as DRW is that access to the personal protective equipment by the care givers is a challenge at household level.

So we need to find means of how this can be addressed because Covid-19 is spreading very faster,” he said.

Mr Chooma told the Daily Nation that people living with disabilities were at risk of contracting Covid 19 because many of them usually have underlining conditions.

“Most of the people living with disabilities have underlining conditions and in some of the people especially children they have multiple challenges, therefore, they need proper care,” Mr Chooma said.

He said the ‘stay home’ notion was important but that blind have to fend for themselves in order to meet their daily needs from what they get from well-wishers on the streets.

Mr Chooma said there was need for cooperating partners and Government to do enough in helping those with disabilities in Covid-19 prevention.