The North West provincial government has turned all its provincial, district and local health facilities into screening points for Covid-19, which was declared a national disaster by President Cyril Ramaphosa on Sunday.
The province, under the leadership of Premier Job Mokgoro, has also ensured that all its entry ports from Botswana have dedicated officials who will screen all visitors.
Mokgoro made these revelations on Wednesday after the Ministry of Health confirmed that the number of confirmed infections in the country was on the rise.
The provincial authorities have established a provincial disaster management team consisting of provincial health authorities and government officials to deal with the outbreak.
“All health facilities in the province and ports of entry are screening points and all district and regional hospitals have established holding units.
“The Klerksdorp-Tshepong Hospital Complex is our designated treatment centre and a 40-bed isolation ward for treatment has been prepared at that hospital.
“The Klerksdorp-Tshepong hospital Complex has also formed a management committee specifically for the management of Covid-19, led by the CEO and clinical manager,” he said.
Mokgoro said six individuals in
the province had been admitted at holding facilities and tested for Covid-19 by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases and all were reported to be negative.
“We have developed an intensified community awareness programme targeting communities, churches,
traditional health practitioners,
tribal authorities; material has
been developed and is in circulation, wherein we have developed 24900 pamphlets in English and further 12000 in Setswana that are being
distributed.”
He said health officials had also stepped up their presence at the four remaining land ports of entry that were operational, “following the closure of five of the nine ports we share with the Republic of Botswana”.
“We have assessed these ports for readiness and strengthened capacity there by appointing seven additional environmental health officers to the five that had been provided by the Department of Health.
“The five land ports that have been closed are Bray, Mokopong, Makgobistad, Derdepoort and Swartkopfontein,” Mokgoro said.
The closure of the five ports would enable them to move their personnel to the ports which were operational for further capacity improvement.
The government said it was also looking to find additional facilities to quarantine patients if there was any outbreak including holding and treatment facilities.