The Mpumalanga Department of Health on June 23 launched a clinic-based approach to try to curb the spread of Covid-19.
“We are launching this programme as we are moving the approach towards fighting Covid-19 from the wards to the clinics in order to reach the grassroots levels. We appreciate the ward-based approach that was launched, but we want to take it down to a clinic level," Health MEC Sasekani Manzini commented.
She explained that this approach would help healthcare workers focus on those persons who have chronic illnesses that may be underlying factors that can contribute to death in Covid-19 patients.
“We want to take the data and see the patients that are at risk of dying if they were to be infected with Covid-19. We will be working hand in hand with community health workers to ensure targeted screening of the elders who have chronic illnesses and those with co-morbidities, using the data that we have from each and every clinic.” she noted.
Manzini said the best place to educate communities about Covid-19 was a clinic.
“We are launching this approach because it is at a lower level where it is easy for our people to understand what we are talking about," she said.