Govt must pay attention to Long COVID-19 sufferers

NOTING Zimbabwe’s documented 240 923 recoveries thus far, we are concerned regarding the quality of life and health of Long COVID-19 sufferers.

We continue to highlight this phenomenon experienced by both severe and mild COVID-19 patients, who continue to endure negative health experiences weeks and months after they have been marked as recovered.

We highlight ongoing research findings, which indicate that Long COVID-19 sufferers must receive support and increase the training of the healthcare workers on the phenomenon.

Medical sector reports indicate that Long COVID-19 has been found in persons who had not been tested or recorded as positive for COVID-19 initially and also in persons who had not been hospitalised at all.

We reiterate our call for the Health and Child Care ministry, through the COVID-19 treatment and management committee, to update the nation on the tracing and treatment of patients with Long COVID-19 in Zimbabwe.

We continue to call for support for the development of rehabilitation programmes for those experiencing Long COVID-19.

We support calls for direct support to the development of community-based responses or programmes for Long COVID-19, especially as the pandemic has become a largely home-based care illness in the country with devastating consequences for communities.

We support calls for the expansion of access of marginalised or impoverished populations to health services for Long COVID-19.

We amplify calls for clear announcements on contemporary research in management and treatment practices for Long COVID-19 in the discipline of general medicine, psychiatry, psychology and physiotherapy.

Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe