The day before yesterday, the Ministry of Health (MOH) carried out stimulation at Jeddah Islamic Port to detect two cases suspected with an infectious disease among the pilgrims on one of the Hajj voyages coming by sea. The two cases were transported through secure routes outside the port, and then to King Fahad Hospital in Jeddah. The stimulation aimed at determining the level of readiness and preparedness of the different health crews and bodies to implement the emergency plan preset by the health monitoring center in the port.
The implementation of the simulation at Jeddah Port was overseen by the Head of the Curative services Platform at MOH'S Command and Control Center, Dr. Wael Tashkandi, who has inspected all the steps of this stimulation, in the presence of a number of the port officials, led by the Director General of Jeddah Islamic Port (JIP), Shaer Moussa Tahlawi.
Following the end of the stimulation, Dr. Tashkandi said that the evaluation of the assessment committee showed that the simulation was a success according to the international standards; only minor remarks were reported to the bodies responsible for the simulation to be avoided in the future.
On his part, the Director General of the Health Control Center at Jeddah Islamic Port, Dr. Adel Trkistani, said that “in addition to the Command and Control Center and the Health Control Center at the Port, many other bodies participated in the simulation, encompassing the Emergency and Crises Department at Jeddah Health Affairs Directorate, and the departments working in the port, including Ports General Department, Customs Department, Passports Department, and Hajj Department, along with the other security bodies.
He added that "all these bodies have participated effectively in the stimulation, starting from the preparation and implementation and ending up with the facilitating the exit of the two cases by implementing special measures, including filming the two patients, taking their fingerprints, and searching their luggage. During the stimulation, the workers followed the secure route since the detection of the two cases, and applied the precautionary measures on them, in addition to those who are in close contact with them, besides facilitating their exit from Jeddah Islamic Port directly."
Further, Dr. Tashkandi explained that the emergency plan had been prepared since an early time, and distributed to all the port workers who are relevant to the stimulation, to help them achieve their roles, in addition to determining the bodies to be contacted either from MOH or the workers in the port. He pointed out that the stimulation was conducted with high efficiency by all the parties involved.
It's worth noting that, two days earlier, MOH successfully carried out a similar stimulation at King Abdul-Aziz International Airport, and will continue to carry out more stimulations to check readiness of all Hajj-related facilities to address any emergency case - Allah forbid! The stimulation also comes within MOH preparations, as 35 stimulations were scheduled to be carried out at the ports of entry, hospitals and health centers.