Musa Makina
HWANGE Local Board (HLB) has stepped up efforts to combat the spread of the deadly coronavirus within its environs by employing a two-pronged approach against the pandemic.
With the coal mining town having recently experienced a surge in the cases of the respiratory disease, the local authority saw it necessary to explore further measures to curtail the spread of the disease.
This comes after it emerged that the local authority’s executive and management was recently forced to hold an urgent meeting to tackle the disease.
“As council we have taken a two-pronged approach in our fight against the spread of Covid-19, whereby we are emphasising on the health being of our employees,” HLB public relations officer Dumisani Nsingo told The Zambezi Times.
“Three weeks ago the executive and management held an urgent meeting in the wake of the second wave of the pandemic. It was agreed that a budget should be specifically set aside to assist in the fight against the infectious disease.”
As a result, HLB has since reduced the number of at its workstations as a way of mitigating potential spread of the infection. On top of that, HLB has also increased the availability of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to all of its staff members.
Nsingo added: “We are now fumigating all our premises once a week instead of once after a fortnight, as we used to do before the advent of the new infection variant. Every visitor is still subjected to temperature checks and sanitisation of hands at all entry points. Any of our staff who exhibits signs and symptoms of Covid-19 will be immediately taken for Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test.”
The HLB spokesperson further noted that they were looking forward to enhancing information dissemination about the hazardous of the infectious disease through distribution of fliers and placing of notices written in all languages spoken in the communities.
“Council is also busy disseminating information about Covid-19 through various social media platforms with a number of awareness campaigns having been lined-up.
“Health care practitioners at our Empumalanga clinic also take time to impart all visitors seeking various medical attention with requisite information on Covid-19.”
He said councilors have also been tasked to raise awareness on the infectious disease at their respective wards.
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