Covid-19 shows no sign of slowing down, stop paying lip service, Nehawu warns Mkhize

The National Education Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) has called on the health department to necessitate more stringent and effective plans to combat the spread of the Covid-19 urgently as the pandemic shows no sign of slowing down.

Nehawu noted the Health Minister Zweli Mkhize’s address signalling that the country had the 5th highest numbers of infections in the world.

With over 521,318 positive cases alongside 8,884 mortalities, Nehawu said it was disappointed by the timid response by the minister on the rising numbers of frontline workers who are testing positive for the pandemic.

Nehawu in a statement questioned the health minister’s address which stated: “The department of health, therefore, notes, with concern, increasing allegations of health care workers contracting the coronavirus on the line of duty due to lack or poor quality of personal protective equipment.”

Describing the minister’s reaction to health workers testing positive as repugnant, Nehawu noted the latest statistics on the infected frontline workers which suggested that as of 2 August, 24,104, workers tested positive while 181 workers have lost their lives.

“However, [Nehawu] continues to doubt the veracity of the numbers considering that many healthcare institutions conceals the test results of workers and deny workers the right to go on self-isolation for fear of being understaffed.

“As the national union, we are looking forward to the engagement with the minister and the director-general of health on our fact-finding mission report which shows facts about the state of readiness of hospitals which we regard as a battlefield to defeat this virus, not allegations as referred to by the minister.

“We want to remind the minister that it is Nehawu who undertook a fact-finding mission and submitted a report to him first before releasing it to the media and the public on the 27 July 2020.

“It was not ‘unions’ but Nehawu.”

The union questions why if personal protective equipment (PPE) was available, it hasn’t been provided to workers who had been complaining about the lack of sufficient PPE in their workplaces.

“The crisis we are currently facing does not require lip service but it dictates that those at the helm of our healthcare system must roll their sleeves to protect our first line of defence against the virus,” Nehawu said.

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