IN a bid to beef up the national response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Leso¬tho has re-programmed existing resources and mobilised additional fund¬ing as well as partnerships to support the government in addressing immediate and emerging needs.

The focus is on strengthening health systems and building community resilience, culture and behavioural change along with con­tributing to national advocacy and awareness on the disease.

A digital technology - based system with both the web-back-end and mobile application to support the Ministry of Health to capture and manage COVID-19 alerts at the community level will be launched at the Villa Maria Health Centre in Quthing on Thursday.

The application called Bophelo-ka-Mosebetsi (health through work) aggregates reports from registered village health workers to local health care facilities.

This application generates daily reports based on information from screening of suspects found within communities and home quarantine.

The application will connect communities to health centres through the village health workers (VWH) with a view to strengthen and accelerate community response and management of suspect cases.

Using the application, the VHW will screen individuals with COVID-19 symptoms or known to have had an inter­national travel in the past 14 days, and through it, the VHW will be able to monitor quarantined patients and refer suspect cases to health centres.

The application will also help community authori­ties in the enforcement of the COVID-19 regulation.

This action is anchored on the global UNDP policy for the response; ensur­ing Readiness of the health system, Response and crisis management and socio-economic Recovery.

The UNDP support is also based on the Country Programme 2019 - 2023, to the extent that it is responsive to COVID-19.