As the Cabinet Committee and some selected Memebers of Parliament (MPs) have started tours to various councils and health facilities in Malawi, Area 25 health centre workers have put down their tools demanding government to address all of their issues including procurement of Personal Preventive Equipment (PPE) ,hand sanitizers and soap.
For two weeks now patients and guardians at the health facility have been washing hands without soap.
A letter signed by Hon. Jappie Mhango MP, Minister of Health and chairperson for the special cabinet committee for COVID-19 says the visit to some various councils in Malawi has the objectives of assessing multi- sectoral preparedness of the councils on COVID-19 and appreciate threats or risks that are at the council on COVID-19.
The tour to councils and some facilities will be together with parliamentary committees on media, health,social and community affairs starting from Tuesday 28th April- Wed, 29th April, 2020, assessing governance issues on whether all stakeholders are participating, community engagement, awareness and risk status of Coronavirus e.g border, prison and other social gatherings.
According to the letter, the committee will use available resources, utilisation and accountability systems of money sent from Ministry of Health on Coronavirus and other partners supporting the COVID-19 response at the council.
The committee will also assess implementation status on Covid-19 preparedness or response on infrastructure including isolation facilities, enforfement systems, availability of PPEs, surveillance systems on suspects, communiry engagement and any socio- economic issues in the district resulting from the ” social distance”.
About 14 cabinet Ministers and 15 parliamentarians are part of the touring COVID-19 committee to various councils and facilities in Malawi covering 15 districts spending a total budget of M12 million for two days while public health facilities has no medicines.
Meanwhile, Hon. Simplex Chithyola Banda, Parliamentarian for Kasungu South, has put the record straight that he is not participating in COVID-19 meetings as circulated in the media.
