Elizabeth Hiyolwa

NKURENKURU – After months of delay, the Covid-19 isolation facility in Nkurenkuru is expected to be fully operational in the coming weeks. The 12-bed prefabricated facility is being constructed near the Nkurenkuru Public Health Centre. 
Salom Tenga, the regional council’s spokesperson, indicated there was a need for this set-up as it was long overdue.
 “Initially, a decision was taken that the PHC centre should be the isolation facility in the region.  But the challenge was that it was not complete and it has been a pending issue for close to seven years since the commencing of this project,” he said. 

He further stressed the prefabricated facility will relieve the practice of transfering Covid-19 confirmed cases to Rundu in the Kavango East region since none is operational in Kavango West at the moment. This, however, has been a challenge for the reponse team to mitigate the impact of Covid-19. 
The region also does not have quarantine facilities as the identified facilty is not being used for that purpose as there is misunderstanding over the payment arrangment. “The plea from the regional leadership is that whatever that is not ironed out should be ironed out with immediate effect if possible so that we have a quarantine facility,” said Tenga. 
“Quarantine facilities are still needed, cases are rising and we are surrounded by a number of regions where really the number of cases on a daily basis are alarming.”