Twenty Two Test Positive to Covid-19 at One Health Facility in one Month: Who, Where, How, What should be done?

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume V, Issue VIII, August 2021 | ISSN 2454–6186

 Twenty Two Test Positive to Covid-19 at One Health Facility in one Month: Who, Where, How, What should be done?

Jordan Tembo¹, Patricia Mambwe^2
1Kalindawalo General Hospital, P.O.Box 560008, Petauke, Zambia
² Department of Nursing, School of Health Sciences, Rusangu University, Monze, Zambia

Abstract: COVID-19 is a mysterious medical condition that has affected the entire global society. Health Workers face the greatest possible threat of contracting the infection and even dying out of it. At the beginning of winter, one health facility in Zambia recorded a total of 22 Health Workers infected with COVID-19 during the month of June, 2021. The objective of this inquiry was to establish where and how the staff acquired the infection. The study used all the 22 Health Workers with history of confirmed COVID-19 during the month of June. The study was conducted between June and July, 2021. Single-interview-per-participant data collection method was used to collect data from participants. Participation was voluntary. This study found that Health Workers on night duty in the COVID-19 isolation ward worked longer hours, got exhausted with subsequent increased exposure risk and eventual acquisition of infection through close physical contact with Covid-19 patients or contaminated Personal Protective Equipment. This study recommends that Ministry of Health to increase the number of Health Workers- nurses, doctors and other cadres essential in the provision of health care services to COVID-19 patients and to provide Health Workers with adequate supplies of PPEs. Local Hospital Management to reduce working hours for health workers especially those taking night duty in the COVID-19 ward.

Key words: COVID-19, Health Workers, risk, exposure

I. INTRODUCTION

From the time the ‘Chinese authorities identified a new type of corona virus- COVID-19 from a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan city, Hubei Province, China’ (World Health Organization, 2020:5), COVID-19 has been an existential threat to mankind. The virus has since gained foothold and rapidly engulfed the globe thwarting plans and events, devastating lives, tearing families apart, ripping livelihoods away and overwhelming health workers. The disease has challenged modern civilization, hijacked routines, changed the direction of societies and twisted the arm of science, rolling it back to its rudiments. COVID-19 has severely affected the world’s economic, social and mental life, causing inconsolable grief and untold suffering everywhere. Individuals across societies, unacclimated to the permanent emergency of daily masking up are compelled to hide their faces away behind the mask or face COVID-19 excruciating illness and possible death.

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