Denis Mukwege rejects fake news about his resignation
Nowhere in his resignation does Dr. Mukwege mention that he was forced to report negative coronavirus cases as positive. The post was published on Facebook on June 16 and was widely shared, with a screenshot but also on WhatsApp.
‘In no case can I dirty my Nobel Peace Prize for money, we were ordered to declare any illness and any death as being linked to a coronavirus,’ the post said.
For the past two months, Dr. Mukwege has been part of two teams set up to coordinate the response to the Covid-19 pandemic in the province of Sud-Kivu, in eastern DR Congo. He announced his resignation on June 10, saying that the lack of laboratories for testing for the virus had hampered his work.
He also cited a lax attitude towards social distancing or other measures within the population, the porosity of the borders, and the return of thousands of citizens of DR Congo from neighboring countries without having been quarantined.
According to him, this diminished the effectiveness of the team’s strategy. Dr. Mukwege said he was resigning to devote himself to treating an influx of patients at Panzi Hospital, which is managed by his foundation.
A spokesperson for Dr. Mukwege told the BBC that any statement not appearing on his official social media pages and websites is false and fake news. Nowhere in his resignation does Dr. Mukwege mention that he was forced to report negative coronavirus cases as positive.
