The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) has scored Dominica 80% for its level of preparedness in the fight against the deadly Coronavirus. This was revealed by the Minister of Health, Dr. Irving McIntyre, at the meeting of the National Emergency Planning Organization (NEPO) held recently.
“There is a check-list for PAHO, and PAHO actually gave us an 80% preparedness considering the fact that we are just restructuring our health system …but we keep adjusting to see how we can get to the highest level of preparedness,” McIntyre said.
In highlighting the level of the country’s preparedness, McIntyre disclosed that Dominica has –
He said the government has even gone overboard to order to extra kits in case COVID-19 finds its way to Dominica.
“We went a little further and we have actually ordered surgical masks an additional eight thousand (8,000) and in terms of the other with the loop, six thousand (6,000), surgical masks with a shield eight thousand (8,000) and isolation gowns five thousand (5,000),” he said.
The health minister added that 3,000 alert cards have been printed and placed in strategic parts of town such as schools and banks and other public buildings. He said the cards were also printed in French and Spanish to facilitate better understanding for everyone. Meanwhile, the government continues to educate people in schools and nursing homes as well as other public facilities on how to prevent the occurrence of Coronavirus.
“A country can never be 100% prepared…we try to be as prepared as possible, even the developed countries cannot prevent the virus from entering their shores let alone developing countries like ours,” he added. “We have to start with the simplest approach which is, making sure we have proper hand hygiene when we cough in the public and when we sneeze in the public. These are the little basic things that you and I can do that actually don’t cost anything.”
This article is copyright © 2020 DOM767
