Daily Times

The Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) has called upon the legislators to convene a special session of parliament to assess the situation and institute a robust parliamentary oversight of all matters related to Covid-19 in general and deliberations and decision on choice(s) of vaccine in particular.

In its second monthly Covid-19 response monitoring report released on Tuesday, the FAFEN suggested that a serious effort at developing a broader consensus with active parliamentary oversight might help bring political legitimacy, focus, and transparency to several aspects of the government’s Covid-19 response, including the choice and procurement of vaccine(s). Greater transparency over the government policy and plans for vaccine procurement, costs, priority groups, general market regulation, and access will help allay public paranoia and enhance public trust. In addition, the government also needs to proactively address suspicions being expressed by certain quarters over the safety of any vaccine.

The report further emphasised the need for developing a much broader understanding and agreement among the political leadership at the national level to curtail the second wave of Covid-19 in the country. A more focused and integrated effort to reach a minimum understanding among the political stakeholders, followed by a thorough and well-coordinated awareness and sensitisation campaign, may help the government in putting together a successful Covid-19 response. With government bodies like National Coordination Committee (NCC) and National Command Operation Centre (NCOC) issuing warnings about the rise in Covid-19 cases in the country, the opposition believes the government is using the pandemic for political expediency.

The report also identified persisting health-governance challenges at both policy and implementation levels that, if not addressed, may spawn a significant health care crisis in the country. One of the key findings of the report identified that legislative oversight remained dormant during the month of November with only minimal activity in both houses of parliament. The few gathering, which did take place in parliament, only highlighted the differences between the opposition and the government.

The report is based on the data collected through stakeholders’ surveys and direct observation of enumerators deployed in 34 districts. It identified an addition of 35,863 new confirmed cases during November, the number of infections across the country rose from 333,093 on November 1, to 400,482 on November 31, 2020. The second wave is considered more lethal as the number of deaths also increased by 3,715.

The report says a clear and consistent communication strategy is lacking at both the regional and national levels leading to inconsistent compliance in public areas, offices, and even health facilities. It says the capacity to handle the pandemic at the district level remains an issue that engenders significant variance in response by key stakeholders. It says that government officials in 30 districts, from where data was collected, reported sufficient healthcare infrastructure in place, but most representatives of doctors and paramedics’ associations only partially endorsed the statement. “Health facilities in the districts remain a significant concern as the testing, quarantine/isolation capacity, and other provisions such as ventilators are feared to fall short if the rate of infections is not slowed down/checked.”