AfricaPress-Tanzania: TRAVELLERS entering or leaving Zanzibar will from today have their Covid-19 tests taken from major hotels and results posted to relevant authorities electronically.
This follows the introduction of Covid-19 electronic laboratory reporting by the Zanzibar Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children.
The Permanent Secretary, Dr Omar Dadi Shajak, told reporters yesterday that the ministry has established testing centres at major hotels to enhance efficiency.
The decision also seeks to clamp down on fake Covid-19 test certificates and removing inconveniences and congestion of travellers at Mazizini and Lumumba testing centres in Unguja and one centre in Pemba, he stated.
Dr Shajak said the fee for Covid-19 testing has been increased to $80 for all travellers due to an increase in the cost of testing equipment, cautioning that Zanzibaris have no reason to complain for the increase cost of testing fees.
It is not treatment cost but strict requirements of airlines that require all passengers to have test certificates showing they aren’t carriers of the disease, he emphasised.
The ministry has meanwhile signed a three-year cooperation agreement with India’s SIMS hospital and medical consulting institution.
Zanzibar will be referring to India patients from Mnazi Mmoja and several Mainland hospitals for further treatment, under the accord signed by Dr Shajak and the SIMS Foreign Manager.
Other areas covered in the agreement include provision of long and short term training for Zanzibar medical specialists at SIMS Hospital and organising medical examination camps for various diseases. They will meet their exam costs while the government covers treatment costs.
Covid-19 electronic laboratory reporting has been introduced to ensure that public health officials and other relevant authorities have access to comprehensive and nearly real-time data to inform decision making in their response to Covid-19, he observed.
The new testing and reporting arrangement will electronically provide authorities with information needed to better monitor disease incidence and respond quickly, he added.
