MALAWI: Blantyre Archdiocese Appeals For More Efforts In Covid-19 Fight

By Luke Chimwaza

Archdiocese of Blantyre of the Roman Catholic church has appealed for more efforts against further spread of the Covid-19.

Chairperson for Covid-19 taskforce committee in the Archdiocese of Blantyre Father Dennis Kabvina was speaking at Lisungwi Catholic Parish in Neno on Wednesday where the committee donated personal protective equipments (PPEs) and food to communities from the parish.

Father Kabvina, who is also Director of Social Developments in the Archdiocese observed that the decrease in number of Covid-19 reported cases are not giving clear picture of the situation and if not carefully managed it may give false hope to people.

“From the look of things, the number of Covid-19 cases are going down and that shows the situation is improving for the better. However, one thing we have noted in the Archdiocese of Blantyre is that most of the facilities that were conducting tests are complaining that they have no testing kits, this may be a reason behind the decrease in number of Covid-19 cases. He said.

“As the Archdiocesan Covid-19 taskforce, we decided that one of our health facilities (Nguludi hospital) be empowered to conduct tests, but even though we had gene-expert, what we lacked cartilage, we then approached Chiradzulo District Health Office to provide us with the cartridges so that we start testing unfortunately we were told that there are no cartilages and it’s a nationwide problem. So, in our view, the cases are not going down but rather, it is the testing which has gone down and this is evident in the daily Covid-19 reports we get about tests conducted. It is important that the ministry of Heath comes in the open tell people about the situation on the ground otherwise, remaining quite may worsen situation as people would assume that the situation is getting better and start relaxing. He added.

Speaking after receiving the donation, Mrs Tereza Yakobe of Chikwekwe village, Traditional Authority Symon in the district said the assistance is very timely as their families are facing hunger amid Covid-19 pandemic. She appealed for more support to reach out to as many people as possible because the number of households with food problems is very big.

On his part, parish priest for Lisungwi Father Donato Goffredo hailed the Archdiocese particularly for the Covid-19 preventive messages and equipment saying it will help prevent themselves from the virus as they are at risk since they mix with people from neighbouring Mozambique and those from other countries as they travel between Mwanza and Zalewa.

Duriang the visit, the committee donated water dispenser to the parish and maize to over 50 households within the parish

In this initiative, the Archdiocese of Blantyre has donated 750 bags of maize from Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM) and Personal Protective equipments like Soap, water buckets, hand sanitizers from F.I.C Brothers which have been distributed to parishes and health facilities of the Archdiocese. The Archdiocese has also distributed six oxygen concentrators to the health facilities of which one was from F.I.C congregation and five from ECM.

The Archdiocese through it’s social development commissions has also, despite reports of decrease in number of Covid-19 cases, embarked on Covid-19 sensitization drives in a bid to stop further spread of the virus.

Caption: Fr Kabvina demonstrating how to use water dispenser.