Nearly 2 000 health posts unfrozen by Government to boost the nation’s capacity to deal with the coronavirus crisis have been filled, a cabinet minister has said.
Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister, Monica Mutsvangwa said this on Monday in a daily update of the Inter-Ministerial Taskforce on COVID-19 at State House. Said Mutsvangwa:
Of the 4 000 unfrozen posts, close to half, have been filled and these include nurses, nurse aides, environmental health officers and technicians, port health officers, laboratory scientists and technicians, surveillance officers and others.
Additionally, training of medical personnel in COVID-19 case management is ongoing at national, provincial and district levels.
Health and Child Care Minister Obadiah Moyo expressed gratitude to Treasury for unfreezing the posts at a time the country struggles to contain the spread of the epidemic.
Moyo added that the government has so far received 40 000 PCR test kits and another 10 000 PCR cartridges for use on the GeneXpert machine.
GeneXpert machines will enable the government to do COVID-19 tests at rural clinic level, in line with the target of testing 1 000 people daily, Moyo said: