COVID-19 Fight: Kudos to Zimbabwean frontline health workers

It is without a shred of doubt that frontline healthcare givers, workers, and attendants have been our heroes and heroines as we take stock of the over one-year experiences in the fight against the Coronavirus pandemic.

The story is not different in Zimbabwe as health workers were at the beck and call of crucial health emergencies.

Healthcare personnel continues to be on the frontline of the nation’s fight against this deadly pandemic.

They have defied the odds of the risk of getting infected and have provided critical care to those who are or might be infected with the virus that causes COVID-19.

Medical staff caring for COVID-19 patients face mental stress, physical exhaustion, separation from families, stigma, and the pain of losing patients and colleagues.

Many of them have been infected with the COVID-19 and some have died.

In Africa, where the pandemic has been escalating, there are major gaps in response capacity, especially in human resources

and protective equipment.

Indeed, we gallantly celebrate and salute this noble committed class of professional healthcare givers.

Given the evidence of ongoing COVID-19 infections among healthcare personnel and the critical role they play in caring for others, there is the need for the continued protection of them at work, at home, and in the community.

Some of these workers within the medical care ecosystem include:

Emergency medical service personnel

Nurses and nursing assistants

Physicians

Technicians

Therapists

Dentists

Dental hygienists and assistants

Phlebotomists

Pharmacists

Students and trainees

Contractual staff

Dietary and food services staff

Environmental services staff

Administrative staff

As the nation embarks on the nationwide campaign encouraging people to get vaccinated, currently in Zimbabwe, the Sinopharm vaccine, the Sinovac, both from China, the Covax from India and the Sputnik V vaccine from Russia expected to be the fourth MCAZ approved vaccine to be used in Zimbabwe.

However, like all other global vaccines will not be 100% effective at preventing the virus entirely, for that reason, vaccinated people still require to observe prevention in masking up, sanitizing, and observing social distancing when in public, since everyone is not vaccinated.

With all these efforts to ease the impact of the pandemic and the hope that everything will get back to normalcy, let us not forget those who have been on the frontline.

NOTE: This article was filed with the financial support of the European Union (EU).

Its contents are solely the responsibility of Abel Mavura and do not reflect the views of the EU.