Covid-infected mom confined with her child
23 June 2020 | Health
OGONE TLHAGE
WINDHOEK
A Walvis Bay mother, who has tested positive for Covid-19, says public health officials have still not tested her minor children, one of whom she is in self-isolation with, despite their high risk of infection.
The mother, who is known to Namibian Sun, tested positive for the virus last Thursday and had not been moved to an isolation centre used for coronavirus patients.
“The room I am living in right now is in the backyard of my boyfriend's house in Sea Point,” she said.
“I also rent in the same area but I moved to this room because I was sharing the shower with many people where I rent and I didn't want to infect anyone when I realised I might be infected,” she said telephonically yesterday.
Asked how she came to realise that she might be infected, she said: “I was just feeling sick, I had pain in my lower back and I was feeling tired.”
Distraught
“I went to the hospital and they found that my temperature was high and said I should go home to be tested the next day. From the test, I was advised not to get in contact with anyone.
“I was tested last Thursday and after that I was told to go home and self-quarantine. I have a nine-month-old baby and a three-year-old child. They [health officials] told me I was supposed to self-quarantine. “Who will look after them if I self-quarantine? They have not been tested, but I have to self-quarantine.
“No one has come and everyone is coming up with different stories. They need to test my children, I am just alone,” the distraught mother added.
Nothing he could do
Despite frequent calls made to government officials to have her separated from her children, her efforts have fallen on deaf ears, she said.
“No government official has come to me yet. They told me they will come and get me and I am still just raising my problem. I called them to ask them when they are taking my baby,” she said. Walvis Bay Urban constituency councillor Knowledge Ipinge said there was nothing he could do to assist the mother of two since government would have to get involved through the health ministry, as protocol dictates. Ministry executive director Ben Nangombe yesterday denied claims that one of the country's patients was still not moved to a government isolation facility.
He said it is standard operating procedure that government takes in and isolates persons who have tested positive for the coronavirus.
“That is not correct. The position is that someone who is tested is isolated. Even the infant was tested. The correct information is that a person must be placed in isolation,” he said.
Efforts were also made to reach Erongo Region health director Anna Jonas, but calls to her phone went unanswered.
WINDHOEK
A Walvis Bay mother, who has tested positive for Covid-19, says public health officials have still not tested her minor children, one of whom she is in self-isolation with, despite their high risk of infection.
The mother, who is known to Namibian Sun, tested positive for the virus last Thursday and had not been moved to an isolation centre used for coronavirus patients.
“The room I am living in right now is in the backyard of my boyfriend's house in Sea Point,” she said.
“I also rent in the same area but I moved to this room because I was sharing the shower with many people where I rent and I didn't want to infect anyone when I realised I might be infected,” she said telephonically yesterday.
Asked how she came to realise that she might be infected, she said: “I was just feeling sick, I had pain in my lower back and I was feeling tired.”
Distraught
“I went to the hospital and they found that my temperature was high and said I should go home to be tested the next day. From the test, I was advised not to get in contact with anyone.
“I was tested last Thursday and after that I was told to go home and self-quarantine. I have a nine-month-old baby and a three-year-old child. They [health officials] told me I was supposed to self-quarantine. “Who will look after them if I self-quarantine? They have not been tested, but I have to self-quarantine.
“No one has come and everyone is coming up with different stories. They need to test my children, I am just alone,” the distraught mother added.
Nothing he could do
Despite frequent calls made to government officials to have her separated from her children, her efforts have fallen on deaf ears, she said.
“No government official has come to me yet. They told me they will come and get me and I am still just raising my problem. I called them to ask them when they are taking my baby,” she said. Walvis Bay Urban constituency councillor Knowledge Ipinge said there was nothing he could do to assist the mother of two since government would have to get involved through the health ministry, as protocol dictates. Ministry executive director Ben Nangombe yesterday denied claims that one of the country's patients was still not moved to a government isolation facility.
He said it is standard operating procedure that government takes in and isolates persons who have tested positive for the coronavirus.
“That is not correct. The position is that someone who is tested is isolated. Even the infant was tested. The correct information is that a person must be placed in isolation,” he said.
Efforts were also made to reach Erongo Region health director Anna Jonas, but calls to her phone went unanswered.
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