Durban - Four residents at a Durban home for the aged have now tested positive for the coronavirus - three are in quarantine at the home and one is on a ventilator at St Augustine’s Hospital.
Two women from Bill Buchanan Association For The Aged in Morningside tested positive last week for the virus, and two more cases were confirmed on Monday.
“Two other residents are also in quarantine awaiting their results, and 16 staff who came into contact with the residents are at home in self-isolation,” said Dudley Fortune, the home’s chief executive.
Reacting to the news, Naren Pattundeen, interim chief executive officer of the Aryan Benevolent Home, said: “We must learn from this. We have to change the way we conduct ourselves now. We must hit the reset button and as custodians implement the type of care our residents need.”
The Association For The Aged (Tafta) chief executive Femada Shamam was saddened at news of the confirmed cases at Bill Buchanan, but said Tafta had plans in case residents contracted the virus in one of their homes.
“Those elders presenting with illness will be placed in self-isolation in units identified for this purpose, if self-isolation in their rooms is not possible. In the case of infection, we will immediately isolate the affected individual and contact the NICD and follow the set protocols,” she said.
Ashok Rambharos, manager at Clayton Garden Home for The Aged, said education was an integral part of limiting risk of exposure to residents, and they were reducing people’s contact with residents as far as possible.