Times Of Swaziland: DUPS FULL AS COVID-19 DEATHS SURGE

DUPS FULL AS COVID-19 DEATHS SURGE
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BY STANLEY KHUMALO on 04/01/2021 00:33:00


MANZINI – As the COVID-19 statistics surge, Dups Funeral Home and Crematorium
is struggling to cope with the collection of corpses from clinics and
homesteads.
Chief Operations Officer (COO) at United Holdings (UH) Ltd, Mzingaye Ndlovu,
said the spurt in the positive cases had a heavy impact on the company’s
operations as it was now full.
United Holdings (UH) Limited is an Associate of Dups Holdings Ltd.
Ndlovu said the funeral parlour’s storage capacity was slightly over 100
bodies; however, due to the increase in the number of people succumbing to
COVID-19-related illnesses daily, they had stretched their resources and could
no longer afford to meet the demand.
He said this was a global pandemic and no country had planned for it. Ndlovu
said: “We can no longer collect corpses from homesteads and clinics as the
rate in which deaths are occurring is too high.”
Overwhelmed
He said the company was overwhelmed just like public health facilities. Ndlovu
said they were already engaging with relevant stakeholders in government on how
best to deal with the situation as the high number of deaths was resulting in
the company having to dig deep into its coffers as well.
“Availing human resource for funerals of people who died due to
COVID-19-related illnesses has become a public service.”
Ndlovu said this was because government was not providing personal protective
equipment (PPE) to them.
This, he said, meant that they had to dig deep into their coffers and procure
the disposable suits.
He acknowledged that government availed disposable gloves; however, Ndlovu said
they were minimal as within a day, the funeral parlour’s personnel used over
700 pairs.
“In light of this, we are assisting government where we can, but the cost is
too high.”
Despite the precautionary measures the personnel of Dups Funeral Home take when
engaging in their duties, Ndlovu said a substantive number of their staff
members had contracted the virus while rendering their services.
This, he said, had compromised their turnaround time in terms of dealing with
the demand of the facility.  “We buy PPE for our personnel to make sure that
they are not exposed while rendering their services.”
Worth noting is that the challenges reported by Dups Funeral Home came against
the backdrop of 227 deaths as of Saturday, January 3, 2021.
This is a 105 increment from the 122 deaths that were recorded from March 13,
2020 until the end of November last year.
Surge
Also, this publication last Thursday reported that the Ministry of Health was
under strain following the surge in COVID-19 infections. Principal Secretary
(PS) Dr Simon Zwane said the country was currently under strain for beds and
oxygen at the medical facilities treating people who had tested positive for the
coronavirus.
He said there was a strain for space for beds to accommodate severely critical
and critical patients. Dr Zwane said:“There is currently no space for these
beds at the Lubombo Referral Hospital and at the Luke Commission at
Sidvokodvo.”
Furthermore, he said the ministry’s facilities were consuming about 700
cylinders of 10.2 kilogrammes of oxygen per day; which was a first for the
country.
The PS said two companies came forth to assist government when the pandemic
started as they doubled their production and started supplying them day and
night as a response for the need of oxygen; however, this was not sufficient.
According to the guidelines for treating COVID-19, oxygen is recommended for
adults with the virus and acute hypoxemic respiratory failure despite
conventional oxygen therapy, the panel recommended high-flow nasal cannula
(HFNC) oxygen over non-invasive positive pressure ventilation (NIPPV) (BI).
Dr Zwane further said there was a strain on human resource as some responders on
the ground had tested positive for COVID -19. He said while the first responders
were recovering, the human resource dealing with the surge came under pressure
as they were already stretched. Given these challenges, Dr Zwane said: “We
can’t say we are ready for the virus, but we are doing the best we can to
respond to it.” He said currently, the ministry was seeking authority from
relevant authorities in government to recruit 70 personnel to fill vacant
positions. Recently, the ministry had said there was a need for 700 employees to
deal with its human resource shortfall.