2607 coronavirus patients are waiting for confirmation of their recovery, this was the statement from the head of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)response team, Dr Jean-Jacques Muyembe. Speaking on talk show radio Top Congo FM, the Dr said that these were patients with mild symptoms and have been recovering from home. So far the DRC has recorded 807 recoveries from the 5477 confirm cases of the coronavirus.
Since the outbreak of the pandemic in the country the response capacity has been poor. Compare to global average, the number of testing done in Congo is still extremely low (an average of 600 per day), and it was only recently that government had installed testing labs in some Provinces. In the beginning of the outbreak patients across the vast country had to wait for results from the National Institute of Biomedical Research in Kinshasa, which could take up to two weeks.
Apart from the testing challenges, health workers dealing with the virus have often complained about not receiving their salaries for months and poor working conditions.
Earlier in June Nobel Peace Prize winner and gynaecologist, Dr Denis Mukwege, resigned as the Chief of the coronavirus response team in the South Kivu Province as result of lack of support and leadership from government.
President Felix Tshisekedi has since announced that government will abandon the military parade for the 30th of June Independence day celebration and use the budget allocation to pay bonuses to health officials combatting the virus.
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