The national referral hospital (NRH) are putting in place measures to control the spread of COVID-19 amongst staff and patients.
To date over 100 staff at the NRH have tested positive for COVID-19 and have been stood down from duties.
The Chief Executive Officer at the NRH Dr George Malefoasi says several measures are being put in place, not only to track the spread of the virus but also to manage it.
“Chain of infection could be patient to staff, or staff to staff. These lines of infections are being looked into, and there are measures to limit exposure.
“Basic measures are being done like handwashing, sanitizing, social distancing and personal protection equipment,” Dr Malefoasi said during the Health Ministry’s talkback show yesterday.
“Additional measures such as decontamination in the morning, lunch and evening is also being done, and soon we will also do hospital wide fumigation.”
He says staff at the NRH are also operating in bubbles, meaning medical teams are being rostered in groups, who do interact with each other.
Dr Malefoasi says one of the challenges faced by the NRH is that there are too many guardians, which has led to overcrowding and may have contributed to the spread of the virus.
He says the NRH has implemented several measures to control the movement of guardians in and out of the NRH.