Minister of Information and Communication Infrastructure, Ebrima Sillah, has revealed that the Ministry of Health and its partners are working together to open more COVID-19 treatment Centres across the country.
The Ministry is currently using some hotels as treatment/isolation centres in addition to the Sanatorium and Medical Research Centre (MRC) treatment centres, he said at an online weekly inter-ministerial press conference organized by the ministry of information on Friday.
The conference was the 5th session held online.
Sillah said expansion and refurbishment of Ndemban in Bakau treatment Centre, 10km outside Banjul, is in progress, and the WHO and UNOPS have already started working on the construction of temporal treatment centres at Essau, Jarra, North Bank Region Soma, Lower River Region and Bansang, Central River Region which are expected to be handed over on the 9 October 2020.
Sillah disclosed that the Ministry of Health has also developed a strategy where each COVID-19 positive individual is assigned to a doctor who will be calling him or her on a daily basis to monitor the patient in home isolation.
He urged the general public to cooperate with the doctors to make the process a success.
“Plans are also underway construct an Infectious Disease Centre which would be a state-of-the-Art hospital funded by World Bank,” he disclosed.
According to him, in the area of sensitization and raising community awareness about COVID-19, the Ministry of Health has now strengthened partnership with District Chiefs, religious and traditional leaders, key influencers and traditional communicators to communicate clear, consistent and reliable COVID-19 messages to promote positive behavioral change and dispel rumors and misinformation.
He pointed out that as part of efforts to ensure that more people are tested, the Ministry of Health has also set up new centres within the Greater Banjul Area and West Coast Region for COVID-19 sample collections.
“Henceforth, anyone who wants to do a COVID-19 test could have their sample collected from the sample collection points. Samples will be collected from these sites only on week days, Monday to Friday from 9:30am to 3:00pm each day,” he said.
He added: “The public is reminded that while at the sample collection sites, they should strictly adhere to COVID-19 prevention and Control measures including the use of facemask, physical distancing and hand washing/sanitizing. For more information, call COVID-19 helpline 1025.”