AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE Manyara regional authorities have established teams of experts to fight against a coronavirus threat in its seven district councils.
The teams will raise public awareness on how individuals can protect themselves against contracting the deadly virus and will also be offering services to those who could be infected and ensure they do not transmit the disease to others.
It has as well set up 215 centres for such services at dispensaries and health centres in the region that will be receiving and offering services to persons that have disease symptoms.
Manyara Regional Chief Medical Officer, who doubles as Regional Administrative Secretary (RAS), Dr Damas Kayera, announced the measures, calling on members of the public not to panic as the government was well-organised to control and fight against the pandemic.
He called upon Manyara residents to be vigilant and take all precautionary measures in accordance with released health guidelines, basically washing hands with soap and using sanitisers as well as masks, the latter to be used only when necessary and avoiding close contacts.
“We are going to raise public awareness on this disease although nobody in our region has been infected as of now (yesterday). We need to cultivate a culture of maintaining hygiene to the highest standards as this will reduce the risk of contracting the disease and others,” said Dr Kayera.
The region has set up emergency strategies to ensure it remains free of the deadly virus.
Furthermore, it will improve its infrastructure, put in place all needed equipment and there are already places for isolating cases that might emerge.
Covid-19 is a disease caused by a virus strain that began spreading in people in December 2019.
Health experts are concerned because little is known about this new respiratory virus, and it can cause severe illness and pneumonia in some people.
In 2019 illnesses associated with this virus were first reported in Wuhan, China.
