This archive report was first published on 19 May 2020.
Published on May 19, 2020, the Ministry of Health has sounded an alarm over growing numbers of people dying from the coronavirus at home.
Clearly, we have a far deeper problem to confront, with many people contracting the disease and some perhaps surviving but others dying and their status only getting known post-humously.
At the core of this is the question of testing, with far fewer people having been tested to establish the exact levels of infections.
The government has on several occasions announced plans to conduct mass testing to determine the correct number of infections, but this has never taken off due to a lack of testing kits and personnel.
Testing is the surest way of averting infections as it provides reliable data for the appropriate response, but the flipside is that Covid-19 comes with stigma.
People fear going for voluntary testing because of the perceived negative impact, including being taken through a quarantine, having all contacts rounded up and forced into isolation, and facing social stigma even after being discharged.
Not surprisingly, health facilities now lie idle and underutilised, becoming costly to run, and the challenge we have with rising numbers of people dying at home due to Covid-19 is that it is swelling infections and worsening the situation.
Thus, the government should intensify public education to sensitise citizens to seek medical attention when they suspect infection, and local administrators should be roped in to carry out surveillance and direct those with suspicious ailments to visit health facilities.
Importantly, those infected should be treated humanely to eradicate stigma that has come to be associated with the virus.
