THE first shipment of the COVID-19 vaccine which arrived in Lesotho on March 3 was accompanied by a team of medical experts that is going to support the pandemic response.
health
March 8, 2021
LINEO MABEKEBEKE
2 min read
British medical experts support local COVID-19 response
The US ambassador to Lesotho Rebecca Gonzales
Dr Richard Banda of the World Health Organisation (WHO) said the vaccine is a game changer, so they still have different aspects of the response, one of which being the treatment of patients.
He said it has been a year now since the advent of the pandemic and the cases that are coming up put enormous pressure on the health service in Lesotho.
Dr Banda said the British High Commission-led team of medical experts will be in the country for a month and will work closely with the Lesotho health workers to fight the pandemic.
The British health professionals he said will be based at the Berea and Mafeteng Government Hospitals, which have specifically been earmarked as the country’s COVID-19 facilities.
Their role, he showed will not be limited to providing assistance at the centres only but they will also support mentorship in the district hospitals to ensure that treatment, even at the lowest level of health service delivery is up and fully operational.
Dr Banda thanked the Ministry of Health that has facilitated the team to be in the country, adding that the health professionals have worked in several countries including Eswatini and Ghana, hence they have immense knowledge and experience in that area.
However, the United States government recently contributed US$2 billion to the COVAX facility.
As the largest donor to COVAX, the US is committed to the international COVID-19 response which is critical in ending the pandemic.
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The US ambassador to Lesotho, Rebecca Gonzales has shown that her country will continue supporting the vaccine roll-out with trusted implementing partners together with the Ministry of Health.
She said in the past year, the US government moved swiftly to support the local response to control the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
COVAX partners have been supporting governments and partners in readiness efforts.
This includes assisting with the development of national vaccination plans, support for cold chain infrastructure as well as stockpiling of half a billion syringes and safety boxes for their disposal, masks, gloves and other equipment to ensure that there is enough equipment for health workers to start vaccinating priority groups as soon as possible.
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