By Liapeng Raliengoane
MASERU – The Ministry of Health (MOH) has urged the nation to take precautions and vaccinate against Covid-19 as it is still around.
While opening a three–day workshop for media practitioners and social media pages administrators in Maseru, meant to capacitate them on health reporting and cyber security awareness, MOH Public Relations Manager ‘Mamolise Falatsa warned that the fight against Covid-19 is still ongoing.
Falatsa urged the nation to still follow the World Health Organization (WHO) protocols towards Covid-19, to also vaccinate against Covid-19 and for those who have vaccinated to get booster shots. This, is also towards reaching the target of having at least 70% of the population vaccinated.
She disclosed that this workshop was facilitated by the ministry of health in partnership with PSI Lesotho with the aim to capacitate media practitioners on health reporting as “The media plays a number of roles in educating the public about health issues and has a responsibility to report accurate health and science information to the public.”
Presentations done on vaccines benefits listed that vaccines save lives by protecting against vaccine preventable diseases, are cost-saving, reduce chances of outbreaks and reduce disease complications.
On why Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) is important in the context of Covid-19, it was mentioned that since the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a novel (new) virus, every person on the planet is susceptible. Therefore, no person in the world had immunity to SARS-CoV-2 as it is not known yet what level of immunity is gained from being infected with SARS-CoV-2.
The Minister of Health Hon. Selibe Mochoboroane commended the importance of this training for media practitioners as they would be equipped with skills to report on health issues and it would help the ministry of health and media practitioners to build a rapport as they need one another.
“When reporters get information from the ministry of health, the public is guaranteed to get reliable and correct information. It is in this workshop that the ministry and media practitioners share ways to work harmoniously,” he declared.
Hon. Mochoboroane stressed the pivotal role played by the media practitioners in helping the ministry by reporting issues either good or bad about the ministry as this will help the ministry to fix and improve where there is a need and continue where it is doing good.
One of the attendees of the training, Ntsoaki Motaung who works for Newsday newspaper said the training was helpful to her as a health reporter, she learned ways to be secure while using social media platforms as a reporter.
Motaung put more emphasis that this training came at the right time, as it is the beginning of the year and will go a long way in helping them as reporters throughout the year and they have been equipped with skills to provide the public with the correct information and to be cyber savvy while doing their work.
Nation advised to vaccinate against Covid-19
Liapeng Raliengoane
MASERU – The Ministry of Health (MOH) has urged the nation to take precautions and vaccinate against Covid-19 as it is still around.
While opening a three–day workshop for media practitioners and social media pages administrators in Maseru, meant to capacitate them on health reporting and cyber security awareness, MOH Public Relations Manager ‘Mamolise Falatsa warned that the fight against Covid-19 is still ongoing.
Falatsa urged the nation to still follow the World Health Organization (WHO) protocols towards Covid-19, to also vaccinate against Covid-19 and for those who have vaccinated to get booster shots. This, is also towards reaching the target of having at least 70% of the population vaccinated.
She disclosed that this workshop was facilitated by the ministry of health in partnership with PSI Lesotho with the aim to capacitate media practitioners on health reporting as “The media plays a number of roles in educating the public about health issues and has a responsibility to report accurate health and science information to the public.”
Presentations done on vaccines benefits listed that vaccines save lives by protecting against vaccine preventable diseases, are cost-saving, reduce chances of outbreaks and reduce disease complications.
On why Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) is important in the context of Covid-19, it was mentioned that since the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a novel (new) virus, every person on the planet is susceptible. Therefore, no person in the world had immunity to SARS-CoV-2 as it is not known yet what level of immunity is gained from being infected with SARS-CoV-2.
The Minister of Health Hon. Selibe Mochoboroane commended the importance of this training for media practitioners as they would be equipped with skills to report on health issues and it would help the ministry of health and media practitioners to build a rapport as they need one another.
“When reporters get information from the ministry of health, the public is guaranteed to get reliable and correct information. It is in this workshop that the ministry and media practitioners share ways to work harmoniously,” he declared.
Hon. Mochoboroane stressed the pivotal role played by the media practitioners in helping the ministry by reporting issues either good or bad about the ministry as this will help the ministry to fix and improve where there is a need and continue where it is doing good.
One of the attendees of the training, Ntsoaki Motaung who works for Newsday newspaper said the training was helpful to her as a health reporter, she learned ways to be secure while using social media platforms as a reporter.
Motaung put more emphasis that this training came at the right time, as it is the beginning of the year and will go a long way in helping them as reporters throughout the year and they have been equipped with skills to provide the public with the correct information and to be cyber savvy while doing their work.