‘Minor’ concerns at RGM airport

By Fiona Ruzha

The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health and Child Care yesterday expressed satisfaction with the state of preparedness of Covid-19 at the isolation centre Wilkins Infectious Disease Hospital.

The committee, chaired by Dr Ruth Labode, yesterday toured Wilkins Infectious Disease Hospital and Robert Gabriel International Airport to assess the state of preparedness of the health delivery system on Covid-19.

However, the committee was disgruntled with the country’s premier entry point- Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport, with most immigration officers failing to have basic protective clothing like masks.

For the few masks on offer, some of them look substandard and the few immigration workers with masks and Zimra officers, seemed not to know the reason of putting them on as they tended to remove them every time they welcomed visitors at the majestic air terminal.

Speaking after the tour, Dr Labode said she was happy with the state of preparedness at Wilkins Infectious Disease Hospital.

“I was humbled at Wilkins on how the health workers were preparing themselves.

“However, just looking around at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport, we are making an effort but there is more work that needs to be done with regard to immigration workers.

“I saw a wrong mask that was flat covering the nose being worn by one of the girls and she was quickly pulling it down because she was unable to breath.

“Another issue is that the immigration workers totally had no masks.

“While the Zimra workers had masks the challenge is that when they attend to people coming into the country, they tend to remove them which is very dangerous because during that process they may get affected.

“I have also observed that when people are getting into the country the immigration officers are not asking questions or looking at the passport to see if the traveller has passed through the affected areas because they are assuming that the port health would have done all the job when they took the temperature which is not enough.

“But if these immigration, Zimra and port health officers are well equipped and protected then the rest of us are safer,” she said.

Head of Department of Immigration Control Evans Siziva said they were failing to procure masks because they do not have forex.

“It’s very unfortunate that when you visited today (yesterday) we had run out of masks and we cannot source the masks because we need forex which we do not have.

“We have procurement procedures which now need to be adhered to and it’s not easy to just identify a supplier without going through the processes,” he said. H-Metro