Chitipa District Hospital (D.H.O) has drilled the Malawi Red Cross Society volunteers from the district on preventive measures against the Coronavirus (COVID -19) pandemic.
Speaking during the closing day of a two-day orientation meeting on Tuesday, District Environmental Health officer Sam Chirwa said there is need for effort by more players in order to avoid the pandemic from affecting many people.
“We want to tie hands with every stakeholder as Chitipa D.H.O so that together we can ably handle the pandemic. These volunteers will help to sensitize people in remote areas on precautionary measures that they have been taught such as hand washing steps.
“We will again soon start patrolling the district in public places such as Churches and bars in conjunction with the police to make sure there is social distance,” said Chirwa.
In his remarks, one of the participants, Laurent Mlenga applauded the D.H.O for the initiative, saying it has come at a right time as many people in rural areas of Chitipa are yet to be reached with the preventive measures against the disease.
“A lot has been grasped, we will relay what we have been taught here to communities so that they should start practicing these precautionary measures than waiting for the pandemic to come,” Mlenga attributed.
Mlenga further added that Chitipa being a district where Malawians do cross border trading with two neighboring countries of Tanzania and Zambia, where Covid 19 has already reached, people need to be alert on how they can stay safe.
So far eight people in the country have been tested positive and one of them passed on early this week.
