Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in South Sudan says it has trained health workers and provided technical support on how to screen patients and work safely to protect themselves from contracting Covid-19.
MSF said it was concerned that the Covid-19 pandemic would cause significant impact on an already dire humanitarian situation in South Sudan, hence its decision to get health workers ready to contain the virus.
It was learnt that MSF began integrating Covid-19 measures into existing projects across the country, while starting a specific response in the country’s capital, Juba.
The organisation installed 12 handwashing stations in health facilities and densely populated public areas such as the Konyo market and informal internally displaced person settlements.
‘Since March 2020, we have worked in various locations across Juba, focusing on strengthening infection prevention and control measures in existing health facilities, training healthcare workers and providing health promotion activities targeting the community’, it noted.
At the National Public Health Laboratory in Juba, MSF is understood to be supporting health workers with training.
‘Health workers are really at the frontline in fighting Covid-19’, Emergency Coordinator at MSF, Tejshri Shah, said.
‘It is crucial that they are empowered with the knowledge and the tools, not only to identify patients and to protect themselves, but so they pass this information on to the community’.
Source: Médecins Sans Frontières
Photo source: Médecins Sans Frontières
