Pretoria – The Gauteng Department of Health on Thursday revealed that at least 15 staff members at the Dr George Mukhari Academic Hospital have tested positive for novel coronavirus (Covid-19).
“We can confirm that 15 staff members at Dr George Mukhari [Academic Hospital] have tested positive for Covid-19. The affected staff members are now under supervisory isolation either in their homes or at private healthcare facilities,” said Gauteng health’s head of communications Motalatale Modiba.
“We can also confirm that contact tracing for all the contacts that have been listed by the staff members is underway to ensure that we are able to trace every person that has been listed as a contact for us to administer medical care programme, to test them as well, and to be sure that all the necessary counseling proceeses are undertaken.”
He said the affected parts of the hospital – three wards – have been disinfected and made ready for use.
The Gauteng department of health spokesperson Kwara Kekana and her colleague from MEC Bandile Masuku's office are also in isolation after testing positive for Covid-19.
Kekana and Julius Maputla, who is the manager for stakeholder relations, are the two officials from the provincial disaster management centre that the department had stated on Tuesday that had tested positive.
Meanwhile, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize on Thursday said South Africa had recorded 58,568 Covid-19 infections while the health services have carried out one million tests for the virus.
Mkhize said passing the one-million mark was a milestone and "no small feat". "I would also like to thank the labs for all the hard work that is being done now to clear the backlog and improve turnaround times for processing specimens," he said.
The total number of tests was at 1,028,399. Fifty-two percent were done in the public sector and 48 in the private sector.
Mkhize said South Africa was one of the countries that quickly grasped the importance of a mass testing campaign and to embark on a tracing and tracking programme after the country recorded its first Covid-19 case in KwaZulu-Natal in early March.
African News Agency/ANA
* For the latest on the Covid-19 outbreak, visit IOL's special #Coronavirus page.
** If you think you have been exposed to the Covid-19 virus, please call the 24-hour hotline on 0800 029 999 or visit sacoronavirus.co.za