In a statement to the Lusa agency, Adriano Manuel said that in general the medical class is prepared for the Covid-19 situation, with the registration already of three positive cases in the country, "but the big problem is the biosecurity measures that the country does not have".
"We have some difficulty, on the issue of personal protective equipment, biosecurity in general. The country lacks almost everything, it lacks gloves, masks, glasses", said the trade unionist.
Adriano Manuel stressed that the lack of biosecurity equipment increases the probability of hospitals being a source of contagion, and Angola is in this situation today.
According to the president of the Angolan Doctors' Union, "encouraging a doctor to work in these conditions is very difficult".
"When we have almost nothing, we have hospitals that don't even have drinking water, we have doctors that are working without gloves, without masks, and when that happens it's something to say that the situation is not good", he said.
For the trade unionist, a strong bet is needed to raise awareness among the population, "so that people comply scrupulously with the guidelines of the Ministry of Health and, above all, with the state of emergency that is about to begin".
Along with the issue of biosecurity, Adriano Manuel expressed concern about hospitals in general, which "are not prepared".
"Angolan hospitals are not prepared, except for that campaign hospital where they put some means there, the rest of the hospitals are not prepared", he stressed.
As an example, Adriano Manuel said that in Angola there is no intensive care with more than 20 mechanical ventilators.
"The country generally should not have more than 50 mechanical fans, and in the provinces where hospitals have mechanical fans, the staff doesn't know how to work with them, because they were not prepared for it," he said.
Adriano Manuel said the feeling in the medical class "is one of frustration.
"The doctors are worried, because as they are the front line elements, both doctors and nurses, the probability of contagion is very high, nobody wants to die, that is the great concern of the medical class and nurses in general," he stressed.
The president of the Angolan Doctors Union said that "there are hospitals that doctors don't want to work because they don't have the means of security".
"This is why the declaration of the state of emergency was a very welcome and welcomed by the medical class in general," he said.
