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Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Health workers in Moroto district are calling for skills training on the management and control of COVID-19 in order to guarantee their safety while dealing with suspected cases.
The Moroto district COVID-19 taskforce gazetted Nadunget health centre III and Nadunget Senior Secondary School as quarantine centres in the district. The two centres are less than 1 km apart along the Soroti -Moroto highway.
However, during a visit by URN, health workers at the two facilities expressed worries about their safety and capacity to manage suspected cases and demanded that they are trained on COVID-19 management before any admission is made to the facility.
Loyce Lokut, in-charge of Nadunget health centre III said that although she received information that her facility is to handle suspected cases of COVID-19, she was not consulted and her staff have not been trained.
Lucy Nalolo, a nursing officer warned that the health personnel may not be up to the task without training of the health workers and expressed worry about the safety of the health workers if the training need is overlooked.
Onyamasi Wekesa, a clinical officer at the facility told URN that all the health workers can do now is a temperature check.
The general ward where the suspected cases will be monitored during quarantine currently has 12 beds. However, the facility lacks running water although it was a water source on site. Our reporter’s observed one latrine facility which is being shared by patients in the maternity ward, the general ward and the outpatient department.
According to the nursing officer Jane Atim, they have received aprons, gumboots, masks and infrared thermometers as part of the necessities for a quarantine centre.
Moroto Resident District Commissioner Peter Ken Lochap says Moroto district currently has no case under quarantine but once any case is reported, he or she will be taken to Nadunget health centre III and will be closed to other patients.
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