City of Masvingo holds rapid response training

In the wake of the novel COVID- 19 pandemic worldwide, the City of Masvingo in conjunction with a non-governmental organisation, Christian Care held a two day training of the Rapid Response Teams (RRTs) at Flamboyant Hotel, Masvingo from the 9th to the 10th of July 2020.
Training the Rapid Response Teams is one of the strategic priorities of the City Council to enhance the city’s capacity to respond to a potential importation and spread of COVID – 19 cases in Masvingo. This was stated by City of Masvingo Acting Town clerk in his speech: ‘This training is of high priority. This is why I encourage all participants to make the most out of it. It will enable us to strengthen our response capacities against this terrible COVID – 19 pandemic as well as to respond better to any other outbreaks.’
The training was organized with the support of Christian Care and experts from the health sector, who worked hand in hand with senior staff from the City Health Department. The Acting Chief Environmental Health Officer, Mr Ngonidzashe Maphamula acknowledged that this training “is one of the great strategies of the City Council for public health improvement in the city, so that the local authority will be able to respond to public health emergencies and lead the process.’
The objective of the training was not only to provide participants with the most recent and most updated guidance for detection, confirmation and response to cases of COVID -19 but also to teach the training methodology to enable the participants to conduct this training on other high risk issues.
Since the COVID -19 outbreak worldwide, in Zimbabwe it was declared a state of emergency in March 2020 which was followed by a national lockdown and closure of borders from all the countries identified as being at high risk of COVID – 19 importation.
This RRT training, which in the current context focuses on COVID – 19, Gender and WASH, can also be used to enhance readiness for the response to other hazards threatening the health of people in the city.