Covid-19: The South West Region is Free from Coronavirus — Martin Mokake, Director Buea Regional Hospital

-Three suspected persons test Negative to the coronavirus

By Boris Esono Nwenfor

(Buea-Cameroon) Dr Martin Mokake, Director of the Buea Regional Hospital in Cameroon, and Chief Medical Officer of the said institution has in a press outing said the SWR at the moment is free from the coronavirus pandemic.

This comes after three persons, two in Buea and one in Limbe were suspected to have contracted the virus. Test conducted has however indicated that the three cases are negative of the virus.

“There is no case in the region, but we have this tendency of taking anybody who present such symptoms to make sure that we can be able to keep the population safe because when we leave that person there is a potential for more persons to be contaminated. We had such persons, and we took the samples and send to Yaounde and none of those cases tested positive,” Dr Martin Mokake said.

He went further to add that: “A few of those persons had travel to other countries that are heavily hit by this pandemic. Some people came from other countries that were moderately hit, but they transited through some countries that were fairly hit. They had symptoms like sore throat, fever, and later went to dry cough. Some persons here in Buea had travelled to other regions affected to do businesses and interacted with people who we could not say were positive or not. It was our responsibility to go there and keep them confined until proven negative.”

The Regional Hospital in Buea is amongst the two centers in the South West Region that is capable of responding to a positive case in the region. The other is the Regional Hospital in Limbe.

Observers say this is not enough to adequately respond to positive cases in the entire region couple with the security problems the Region has been facing in some parts, in recent times.

“We are readying as our content is,” Dr Mokake noted responding to how ready the Buea Regional Hospital is to respond to positive cases. “We also have the responsibility in educating the population to make sure that the measures put by the government are respected as we have been carrying out a lot of sensitization.”

“…prevention continues as we have increased the hand washing points in the hospital. We have activated our borehole to make sure that we have constant water in the hospital. We have about 40 sanitizer dispensers at the entrance of every building in the hospital, and we have also made sure we have those sanitizers in wards.”

With medical Doctors nurses and caregivers being infected by the coronavirus globally, the Buea Regional Hospital has taken necessary steps from preventing such cases. “We have carried out in the house trainings; specified trainings have been organized to some staff members. We have also provided personal protective equipment (PPE) to the Doctors, nurses to make sure the y can be protected while delivering the services needed. So those heroes who put out their lives to safe the community deserve some protection, and that is what we are doing.”

Space is obviously very important for patients to be treated and medical practitioners to have a comfortable environment to work in

The total number of confirmed cases in Africa for the coronavirus stands at 3033 and counting. South Africa is the hardest hit on the continent with 927 confirmed cases at the writing of this report. Egypt has 495 confirmed cases while Algeria is at 367 confirmed cases. Cameroon is at 88 confirmed cases. More than 461000 people have been diagnosed with the disease, 20000 of whom have died.

The positive about the coronavirus outbreak is that many people continue to recover from the virus. More than 113000 people have recovered from the novel coronavirus across the globe, according to several sources tracking the global number of Covid-19 cases. China, which had the most Covid-19 cases, also had most of the total recoveries, with more than 73000.