Blantyre District Health Office (DHO) has scaled down the number of Covid-19 patients to be admitted at Kameza Quarantine Centre following the boycotting of work by the facility’s frontline health workers.

On Monday, the junior staff members laid down tools in demand for their unpaid allowances, a development which has forced the senior staff members, to take over the duties at the facility.

Blantyre District Health Officer, Dr. Gift Kawalazira, said since the facility is currently understaffed, therefore they have advised all Blantyre healthy facilities to use their own isolation units to admit the patients.

Dr. Kawalazira said: “Most of the patients we admit at Kameza are usually critically ill and are on oxygen dependent so to give medical care to such people is labour intensive which needs adequate number of people on the ground and in order to ensure patients’ safety we have to scaled down the number.”

He further highlighted that only those extreme cases are the ones that the health facilities are required to refer them to Kameza.

Dr. Kawalazira said the striking workers have engaged into discussions with the Blantyre District Commissioner for the possible ending of the strike.

However, he said if the discussion yields nothing then the striking workers will be allowed to return to their normal duties in their respective designated healthy facilities and the office will recruit a new staff to take over the duties at Kameza.

Meanwhile Blantyre DHO has admitted that the strike has affected its campaign to treat and trace COVID-19 cases.

As of Tuesday, July 7, 2020 Malawi had registered 1877 confirmed cases.