Supreme Committee visits COVID-19 monitoring centres

Muscat: To ensure that efforts are being taken to check the spread of coronavirus in Oman, the Supreme Committee to monitor COVID-19 visited the centres set up by the Ministry of Health (MoH) to tackle the disease.
Among the centres they visited was the Directorate General of Disease Surveillance and Control, where the committee was briefed on the efforts exerted by the MoH technical committee concerned with tackling COVID-19 along with the procedures that have been taken.
Members of the Committee, which is chaired by Sayyid Hamoud bin Faisal Al-Busaidi, Minister of Interior, visited the Directorate General of Diseases Surveillance & Control.
They also paid a visit to the Emergency Management Centre to know the role of the centre, the local and regional epidemiological situation, and the sectoral response in dealing with various scenarios that may occur due to the spread of COVID-19.
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At the Operations Management Centre, the team were briefed on how data on the disease was entered into the ministry’s Tarassud mobile app which provides people the updates on COVID-19, as well as the various responsibilities of the operations centre, which include prevention and infection control, health of passengers at points of entry through airport and ports, data management and epidemiological investigation, primary healthcare, provision of support to persons in isolation and their contacts, liaise with private establishments, and monitor ongoing studies and research on COVID-19.
In addition, the Supreme Committee also visited the Department of Central Public Health Laboratories in Darsait. During the visit, they saw how samples for testing were received from the health centres in the Sultanate, where fluids are taken from people’s mouths and noses for this purpose.
Test results can take up to two or three days, but in case the result is positive, the centre will contact the required head of the health institution, so that the tested patient can be personally informed of the positive result, prior to beginning home isolation procedures.