By Genesis Munde

The Director of  health and social  services at Chitipa District Hospital, Ted Bandawe has made a plea to the media and health sector in the district to work hand in hand in disseminating accurate information in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bandawe said this during a media briefing on Wednesday, April 15, 2020 in the district organized by Chitipa District Hospital (DHO) aimed at equipping media personnel with the knowledge on the novel corona virus.

“We can not win the fight against the Virus since the media is key as we have seen globally most of the information and sensitization is done through the media so it is crucial for the media to be equipped with knowledge so as to help in accurate information dissemination.”

“The information we want to give to the masses is that people should eathealthy and exercise while following the measures put in place by health authorities so it is my plea to the media personnel to avoid misinforming the public because as it stands there is no vaccine for covid19,”said Bandawe.

On his part, District information officer for chitipa, Bishop Witmos said the briefing was an eye opener for the media because it will helpin giving accurate information about covid-19 to the communities from the health sector while he alsocalled for protective wear to the media.

“We need personal protective equipment (PPE) when we will be searching and disseminating the information about covid-19, so that we should be safe from thevirus,”said Witmos.

Commenting on the issue , District environmental health officer forChitipa, Sam Chirwa said the district hospital currently does not have enough personal protective equipment (PPE) for all people in Chitipa but assured that all high risk personnel will be protected.

He further said that the district has trained 60 Malawi red cross volunteers, trained 20 health workers in case management, providing education health at OPD (outpatient department), distributed 4000 Chichewa leaflets, 1500 fact sheets and 400 posters among others.

According to the District Environmental Health Officer, Chitipa is one of the districts which is at a high risk of the covid 19 pandemic as it borders two countries of Zambia and Tanzania.

As of April 15, 2020, Malawi had 16 cases of COVID-19 with two deaths.