Durban - More than 500 teams will descend on the province in the coming weeks, with the hopes of testing thousands of residents for Covid-19.
Several sites across the province have been identified as part of the Department of Health's mass homescreening and testing programme. KZN is one of the provinces with the highest number of deaths from Covid-19 across the country.
The programme was officially launched by Premier Sihle Zikalala along with MECs; Nomagugu Simelane-Zulu, Ravi Pillay, Kwazi Mshengu on Thursday at the Jika Joe informal settlement in Pietermaritzburg.
The roll-out of the screening and testing programme is part of government's response to curbing the spread of the virus.
Screening is done thorough a questionnaire to establish whether people exhibit coronavirus symptoms.
Those who exhibit symptoms and meet the case definition will then be subjected to testing for the virus.
Residents will be able to identify healthcare officials by their reflector vests with proper identification details.
"There are 565 mass screening and testing teams, which amounts to 1130 cadres distributed throughout the province. These teams work in pairs, and are constituted mostly by enrolled nurses. In addition to that, there are 90 teams focusing on road blocks, and 620 tracer teams providing contact tracing," Zikalala said.
He said the teams have been trained on mass screening and testing using a questionnaire with 27 questions available in both English and IsiZulu.
There is a standard operating procedure in a form of a guideline provided to these teams. The teams are working with community health workers from local areas.
The teams will enter a home, ask the set of questions and if they believe a resident may have Covid-19, they will take a specimen.
Zikalala said there are 12 mobile testing vehicles provided in the province, of which four vehicles have already been received.
"Three of these vehicles are allocated in eThekwini, due to the high burden of this pandemic, while the other vehicle is allocated in Umgungundlovu district. The mobile testing vehicle comes with one driver and a professional nurse. As soon as we start using rapid tests, these teams will also be joined by medical technologists," he said.
If the health worker thinks that you may have COVID-19, they will refer you to a health facility to be tested. If a person exhibits no symptoms, they do not have to worry.
