Durban - POLICE officers at several police stations in Durban are panicking after some of their colleagues tested positive for Covid-19.
On Thursday, the Phoenix police station was closed after a policeman tested positive. It has also been confirmed that a Durban SAPS K9 unit and a civilian employee, who works at the 10111 call centre, tested positive for Covid-19.
National police spokesperson Brigadier Vishnu Naidoo said on Monday morning that a policeman from SAPS Phoenix went to the Life Healthcare Mount Edgecombe Hospital for treatment. Naidoo said that while he was at the hospital the officer was tested for Covid-19, as it was part of hospital protocols. The result was positive.
“The policeman has since been placed under quarantine. The member’s last shift was completed on Monday at 6am. Officers who came into contact with the infected policeman are in self-isolation, awaiting screening and testing. The affected area of the station is being decontaminated,” Naidoo said.
Private security company KZN VIP spokesperson Glen Naidoo said they had assisted the station by providing a mobile unit in the interim.
A source claimed several employees at King Shaka International Airport SAPS tested positive this week. A senior member at the station died. It is unclear if he died from Covid-19 complications. The station was closed, decontaminated and reopened. It is alleged that a member at the SAPS mechanical garage in Verulam also tested positive for Covid-19.
At the KwaMashu SAPS Local Criminal Record Centre, the first floor was sanitised after a member tested positive. Sources said the entire building should have been cleaned as the first floor gave access to other floors. Naidoo was asked to confirm these cases, but had not replied at the time of publication.
Naidoo said a member of the Durban SAPS K9 unit and a civilian employee who works at the 10111 call centre tested positive for Covid-19. Both were based at the Durban Central SAPS. He said the Durban K9 unit, and two floors occupied by the 10111 unit, were evacuated for decontamination. Both units are expected to reopen today.
“The 10111 centre was operating from another premises, so the services of that unit have not been interrupted,” Naidoo said.