With the number of deaths caused by Covid-19 rising in the Ngamiland area, the District Health Management Team (DHMT) says they are likely to need the use of Letsholathebe Memorial Hospital mortuary more than ever before.
Already twenty-one deaths have been recorded since the beginning of the year.
But this might not be the case considering that most of the times the hospital mortuary is dominated by corpses believed to be those of poachers whose identities are still not known. Usually these poachers die during shoot out with law enforcement officers or otherwise.
The DHMT acting coordinator Dr Sandra Maripe-Ebutswe, said out of the twelve trays at the hospital, there are currently two unknown men suspected to be poachers who have been kept in the mortuary for close to three months now.
It is not even clear when they will be released for burial because no one has come forward to claim them.
Although uncertain with the exact figures, Dr Maripe-Ebutswe noted that the hospital received a large number of deceased poachers who were admitted and spent months in the mortuary in the past year, thus making it almost impossible to create space for the usual operation of the facility.
Nevertheless, despite the quandary, she said ever since the district was hit by the pandemic, they have maintained a good working relationship with private mortuaries which have been rendering the much-needed assistance. In the past also, she said some hotels were not comfortable with receiving clients for isolation, something which she says has since been corrected.
Chairman of the District Emergency Operation Centre (DEOC), who is also North West District Commissioner Keolopile Leipego admitted knowledge of the challenges faced by the hospital with regard to prolonged stay of poachers in the mortuary, most of who are believed to be foreign nationals. He noted that in most cases the overstaying is due to pending investigations which usually take longer than expected.
He said it becomes a big challenge when the identity of such people is unknown. But in the event whereby investigations are complete and the corpses are still not claimed by their families, they come up as the district leadership and organize for burials to be held at the village cemetery they would have identified.
“This is such a big challenge for us because people have tendency of not revealing their real identities, thus making it even harder for those handling the cases to figure out the next move, more especially if they are of foreign origin. But soon as they give us the green light, we allow for burials as we would have no other alternative. If they are known foreigners then they are repatriated to their countries of origin”, he said.
The entire district is at the moment in a very bad state of having to deal with other conditions of public health emergency such as Malaria.
Dr Maripe-Ebutswe said so far a total number of forty five malaria cases have been reported at Ngami DHMT, the hardest hit being Okavango DHMT with a total of 113. She said they are trying hard to fight both COVID 19 and Malaria even though it now means the two have to compete for the little resources available.
The other setback is that besides being thin on the ground, there is also acute shortage of human resource and transport to do contact tracing. “People are also not adhering to COVID 19 protocols. Some still break curfew times and do not see the need to put on face masks. This on its own still remains a bit of a challenge as lots of lives are put at risk”.
In an endeavor to reach out to communities, Leipego said the sub DEOC led by the office of the deputy District Commissioner recently embarked on a community engagement campaign to meet up with communities at various villages with intention to also strengthen collaboration with village extension teams, Farmer’s committees as well as area councilors, to mention but a few so that they partake in the fight by way of taking responsibility by encouraging and sensitizing people on the importance of taking precaution during these hard times.
“We have villages in the district with more disease burden, and so we are trying hard to familiarize ourselves with this pandemic and related diseases, but it has since occurred that there are people amongst us who still doubt and question the existence of COVID-19.
People still expect to be pushed around so as to adhere. They slaughter animals and exceed the recommended number expected at occasions of any kind. What they need to understand is that we are talking here of death knocking at every household, which is why they need to know that they cannot justify non vulnerability from the current situation”, said the DC.
