Investment, savings, insurance and banking group, Old Mutual has delivered a consignment of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for health workers at Sally Mugabe Central Hospital in Harare, keeping its promise to commit $3.5 million towards Zimbabwes fight against COVID-19. Staff Reporter According to a press statement released by the group, this is the second such donation, after another handover made at Thorngrove Hospital in Bulawayo last month as part of the #BusinessFightingCovid-19 initiative. The goods delivered to Sally Mugabe Central Hospital include 600 aprons, 600 overalls, 3000 overall shoes, 300 boxes each of gloves and masks with 3000 masks and gloves in each box. Upon receiving the consignment, Sally Mugabe Central Hospital Acting Clinical Director, Hopewell Mungani, said the institution greatly appreciated Old Mutual Zimbabwes donation of locally produced personal protective gear. This donation will go a long way in motivating and capacitating the frontline medical staff in their relentless efforts to fight and mitigate against the spread of COVID- 19, said Mungani. The PPE ensures that Health Care Worker safety is put at the forefront in this fight against an unseen enemy. Old Mutual has also provided up to $2,2 billion worth of cover to health professionals on the front line in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic as part of a package that covers the life of the health professionals. Speaking in a Zoom meeting to launch the scheme, Old Mutual Zimbabwe chief executive officer, Sam Matsekete expressed that the group has made it a priority to safeguard the health professionals as they battle to save the lives of Zimbabweans. In the unfortunate event of losing the life of a health professional, Old Mutual undertakes to pay up to 12 times monthly basic salary to the surviving family of the health professional, said Matsekete. Through the scheme, Covid-19 deaths and accidental deaths are covered immediately whilst death from any other causes has a three- month waiting period. Together with its banking subsidiary CABS, Old Mutual has also boosted the capacity of local institutions of higher learning to complement the national fight against COVID-19 by providing funding. The institutions include Africa University and Chinhoyi University of Technology, mass producing sanitizers and masks respectively. The private sector, according to Oswell Binha, a trustee of the #BusinessFightingCovid-19 Trust, has also raised around $20 million dollars of support under the initiative. The goal of the initiative is to rapidly deploy flexible resources to assist in the equipping and administration of existing medical facilities for the benefit of the Zimbabwean population, said Binha.
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