Swaziland (eSwatini) is short of personal protective
equipment (PPE) for front-line health workers during the coronavirus crisis
because suppliers have doubled their prices, the National Disaster Management
Agency (NDMA) said.
Once a tender for equipment had been agreed suppliers asked for prices
to be increased and often more than doubled.
NDMA Procurement Officer Phesheya Dlamini told the eSwatini Observer, ‘Within
a week of award, the prices had increased a hundredfold [doubled] to an extent
that three companies came back to us requesting a price increase of over 100
per cent of the quoted price.
‘For instance, the supplier of gowns had initially said he would supply
us the gowns at E197 each. He, however, came back and requested to at
least supply at a revised price of not less than E400. The only supplier that
did not have a problem was the one who had quoted E1,300. Similarly the company
that was to supply gumboots ended up failing to do so because of the price
hike.’
The Director of Health Services Dr Vusi Magagula said suppliers were
struggling to deliver goods on time and some coronavirus (COVID-19) supplies
were not available as countries rushed for them due to the pressing demand.
Doctors, nurses and other health workers have had to
treat coronavirus patients without correct PPE during the continuing pandemic. On 22 May
2020, Minister
of Health Lizzie Nkosi said 33 health workers had contracted the virus in
Swaziland.
She added, ‘This suggests that in this fight health workers are not
spared from this pandemic as they could [be] gripped by anxiety and fears.’
Swazi Prime Minister Ambrose Dlamini called
frontline health workers ‘our frontline soldiers’. He said, ‘In this war
against the pandemic that has been plaguing the globe healthcare workers are in
the firing end. They are the ones who are bravely protecting us against [the]
deadly invisible enemy.’
Separately, voluntary workers in the community were told they
should strip off their clothes and wash them outside their homes after each
day’s work to avoid taking coronavirus into their homes.
Participants at a workshop in the National Tuberculosis Control
Programme (NTCP) were told this was because PPE was not available.
See also
Swaziland
nurses’ union calls for closure of major hospital in fight against coronavirus
Coronavirus:
Swaziland hospitals in crisis, PM forms emergency task groups
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