By Saro Francine Andrew;
Health authorities in Musanze district have lauded the critical role command posts have played in a bid to win the Covid-19 pandemic battle.
Command posts were established by the government in different districts as one stop centers, where efforts were put on to mitigate the widespread of the pandemic.
Jean Bosco Bashirijabo, Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Officer in Musanze district, says that Musanze has been among the first places in Rwanda to record covid-19 cases, because their first case occurred in the end of March 2020, just two weeks after the country recorded the first case.
For Olivier Ndererimana, staff in charge of Monitoring and Treating Infectious Diseases at Ruhengeri Hospital, efforts have paid off.
“The only possible solution at that time was lockdown,” he said.
“There was a lot of fear among the people, we did not have enough information about the pandemic and it was fast spreading,” he added.
While others stayed at home, Ndererimana says the health authorities and other agencies joined hands in the fight against covid-19.
“The command posts were set up from the national to the sector’s level.” He added.
All Sectors were involved in command posts; among others Local Government, Security organs like army, police and community security, Non-Government Organizations, Civil Society, and others.
Other strategies adopted…
Apart from the set up of command posts, the timely implementation of national response measures were applied such as cross borders movement management, lockdowns, internal quarantines, isolation among others.
The main purpose was to increase case detection capacity, case management and community surveillance, officials said.
Despite Covid-19, community health care services like Malaria detection and treatment, diarrhea in under five, pneumonia in under five, and some other services continued even in the periods of lock downs.
Primary health care services at health centers continued (Cases management, Preventive services, and so on); advanced care at a Referral hospital and referral services have not been compromised.
Musanze district recorded 7230 cases from the pandemic that claimed the lives of 69 people.
People have been vaccinated and will continue; recently the vaccine is given to children aged between 5 and 11.
In addition, the medicine called Paxlovid was confirmed to cure covid-19 in five days. To ensure consistency, command posts are still there with staff available 24/7. (End)