German Ambassador Jurgen Borsch has donated medical equipment and supplies to Dedza District Health Office (DHO) to complement the district’s Covid-19 response efforts.
The items included hand sanitisers, N95 face masks for health workers and support staff, gloves, disposable aprons, pulse oximeters, liquid soap dispensers, surface disinfectants and hand-washing materials.
Speaking in an interview after donating the items, Borsch said the donation was one way of strengthening the healthcare system in Malawi.
He said: “We have started a first quick response amounting to more than K2 billion for the Covid-19 interventions in Malawi.
“We are refurbishing treatment and isolation centres in different hospitals. We are giving out information materials because it is important to let everybody in the country know what we can do and how we can fight the infection.”
Dedza district commissioner Emmanuel Bulukutu said the donation will ease challenges health facilities were facing such as lack of personal protective equipment.
Meanwhile, German and Norwegian governments have procured Covid-19 related equipment and supplies under the Health Services Joint Fund.
Germany has also provided an additional K500 million towards the Malawi-German Health Programme GIZ is implementing in the country. The additional funding will support awareness, training of health workers, contact tracing, surveillance and infection prevention in Lilongwe, Dedza, Mchinji and Ntcheu.
