Durban – A doctor said teenagers were testing positive for Covid-19 and all fingers pointed to the Ballito Rage Festival which took place between November 27 and December 5.
On Saturday afternoon, Dr Kamalasen Govender of Value Health Hillcrest Medical & Urgent Care Centre wrote a Facebook post about an overwhelming 48 hours in the Upper Highway area, with an influx of teenagers requiring Covid-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests.
Govender said it was because the teenagers had attended the Rage over the last week and had a number of friends that had tested positive for the virus.
“Over the past two days, we noted that 95% of the teenagers who tested, were found to be Covid-19 positive, and even more worrying is that almost all were asymptomatic,” said Govender.
He said he received several calls from concerned parents and advised teens who attended the event to be treated as high-risk exposures and therefore as per National Institute for Communicable Diseases guidelines, they would need to quarantine for the next two weeks.
“This definitely has the potential to overburden our health-care system in KwaZulu-Natal over the next few weeks,” said Govender.
Facebook users questioned why parents allowed their children to attend the event and why the event took place during a pandemic.
Rage Festival spokesperson Darren Sandras said they were not hiding anything. They were aware of there being infections and that some of them were from people who attended Rage but where they got it from, they could not 100% determine.
Sandras said everyone who attended Rage was screened daily. They also limited access when necessary and had a Covid-19 officer on site and all of their venues ensured that protocols were being followed.
He said following the positive tests, they issued communication to every attendee and parents to let them know they needed to follow the NICD Covid-19 protocols.
Prior to that, they received one confirmed positive test case of a staffer who worked at the Rage Bar. He said communication was sent to everyone using their app and everyone who attended the bar on the day had tested positive.
“The most important thing to note here is that Rage followed all the required government guidelines to host an event during Covid-19.
“We would not have received our permit or any of our licences to host the event if we did not comply. We had to comply with over 20 different regulations and requirements, as per the national government as well as the provincial government,” said Sandras.
He said they received a backlash from attendees who were upset with them when they enforced guidelines.
Sandras said it was tricky because they wanted to comply with all the rules, which they did, but they also wanted to give attendees a great experience in a safe environment.
Meanwhile, yesterday on Facebook, Zain Soosiwala posted a photograph and said cars could be seen queuing outside the Lancet drive-through Covid-19 testing site on Carlisle Street in the city.
The queue had extended into Dr Yusuf Dadoo (Grey) Street like it did during KZN’s Covid-19 peak.
The Daily News