Congolese gynecologist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Denis Mukwege announced on Wednesday June 10 that he has resigned from his post on the Health Commission set up as part of the response to the Covid-19 pandemic in the southern province. -Kivu (in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo), whose shortcomings he denounced.

"We are (...) at the start of an exponential epidemiological curve and we can no longer apply a strategy that would only be preventive", explains in a press release Dr Mukwege, awarded the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize for care that it brings to women victims of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

"So I decided to resign (...) in order to devote myself entirely to my medical responsibilities and to treat this influx of patients at Panzi hospital" that he founded in Bukavu, capital of South Kivu, wrote Denis Mukwege, nicknamed "the man who repairs women".

# DRC- # Covid19: "To these two factors are added organizational weaknesses and consistency between the different teams responsible for the response to the pandemic in South Kivu", @DenisMukwege https://t.co/CejPpCEqF6

- Stanis Bujakera Tshiamala (@StanysBujakera) June 10, 2020

"A series of problems which" have reduced the effectiveness of our strategy "

On March 30, the governor of South Kivu appointed him president and vice-president of two official bodies set up to organize the response to the coronavirus pandemic in the province.

Dr Mukwege deplores the lack of tests available in the province and the non-compliance with preventive measures. It takes "more than two weeks to receive the results of the samples sent to (...) Kinshasa", which represents "a major handicap for our strategy based on 'testing, identifying, isolating and treating'".

Denis Mukwege also points to a series of problems which "have reduced the effectiveness of our strategy": "a loosening of prevention measures by our population, a denial of realities, the impossibility of enforcing barrier measures, the porosity of our borders with the massive return of thousands of compatriots from neighboring countries without having been quarantined. "

Finally, he denounces "organizational weaknesses and consistency between the different teams responsible for the response to the pandemic in South Kivu".

>> Read also - DR Congo: Covid-19 must not forget the massacres in the East, warns Dr Mukwege

Since March 10, the DRC has declared 4,390 contaminations in Covid-19, including 3,980 in Kinshasa and 89 in South Kivu, for a total of 96 deaths.

In mid-April, Denis Mukwege pleaded for a "partial confinement of people over the age of 60" and "the compulsory wearing of a mask for everyone" in order to break the chain of transmission of the coronavirus.

On May 9, the doctor called for "an emergency supply of tests before the outbreak of the epidemic exponential curve" of the virus.

With AFP

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