COVID-19 is announced as Pandemic

As the COVID-19 is announced as Pandemic, all our health facilities are also serving the community without any Personal Protective Equipment and with limitation in the technical of COVID-19. There are also migrants who came back from Thailand and other countries, and Preventive Measures at community and health facilities levels are compulsory parts to take action. Community Awareness Raising Activities and Health Facility Level Measures as Triage, Screening, and Referral and Cooperation with State & Township Health Departments are also the essential parts of the COVID-19 Response Actions in SSDF coverage areas.

After the first confirmed case was announced in Myanmar, an Emergency Response Team (ERT) was organized, and the responsible person from the communities is also involved in the ERT in order to coordinate with each other day by day via several communication channels.

The following are the COVID-19 related activities that were conducting:

A.Strengthen the Health Care Capacity and Operation System 

1. 1. Supports the Personal Protective Materials and Essential Medicines
   2. Logistics Arrangement of Medical Supplies up to Health Post Levels
   3. Coordinate and Cooperation with several partners such as INGOs, Ethnic Health Committee (EHC), Shan Health Committee (SHC), and etc.
   4. Set up the Telecommunication System
   5. Provides COVID-19-Related Training

B. Support Community-Based Awareness Raising Activities & COVID-19 Suspected Clients

1. Raising the community awareness through the distribution of IEC materials, loudspeaker/hand speaker throughout the village.
2. Created a COVID-19 awareness-raising audio file in cooperation with Shan Radio Station-Nay Pyi Taw, Tai Medical Family (TMF), and State Health Department-Taunggyi.
3. Created COVID-19 Song in Tai/Shan Language by the support of ACCESS TO HEALTH FUND (ATH) through RELIEF INTERNATIONAL (RI).
4. Tik Tok Campaign to raise community awareness.
5. Supports for Referral of COVID-19 Suspected Cases.
6. Supports for Q Site (Food, Hygiene Kits, and etc.)
7. Conduct the supervision trips to the quarantine facilities in the community.

Thankfully, we got emergency supports from our partners even with several problems encountered during this crisis, we will do our best to serve our community to feel free from this infection.