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Technicians from the National Health Laboratory Service were in Port Elizabeth on Wednesday at the start of a massive testing campaign in the city, using a 20-minute rapid test, to identify patients who have the coronavirus. (Photo: Eastern Cape Department of Health)
The Eastern Cape Health Department has launched an intensified testing and tracking program in Nelson Mandela Bay after a large outbreak of coronavirus infections in the metro. The number of active subway cases on Wednesday was close to 7,000 after an increase of 903 overnight.
Reported active cases of Covid-19 in the Nelson Mandela Bay metro increased by 903 in the 24 hours prior to Wednesday, November 18. The spike came when the Eastern Cape MEC for Health, Sindiswa Gomba, launched a 20-minute rapid test that will strengthen efforts to track and trace coronavirus patients.
The rapid mobile Covid-19 antigen test was launched at the Gqeberha Clinic, Walmer, in the Nelson Mandela Bay subway.
The Eastern Cape Health Department said the rapid antigen test can produce results in 20 minutes and can be used as a precursor to the Covid-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test.
The department said mobile test units with healthcare workers who can perform the rapid test will move to access points around the subway as the department intensifies its tracking, tracing and testing of Covid-19 contacts.
As of Wednesday, the metro had 6,894 active Covid-19 cases and is considered South Africa’s Covid-19 hotspot.
Darlene de Vos, Eastern Cape Health Department district manager for Nelson Mandela Bay, said the number of new cases increased by 903 overnight and there were 160 isolated health workers.
Health Minister Zweli Mkhize visited the subway on Tuesday to investigate the situation, saying it was imperative that the outbreak be brought under control as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, the control room of the city’s subway police department was closed Wednesday for decontamination and employees who worked there were placed in self-isolation.
The subway’s Water Department also closed Wednesday after employees at the water distribution reservoir tested positive.
“All employees in the warehouse distribution section will be quarantined and will return after the warehouse has been decontaminated. All employees with symptoms will be referred for testing. A basic team will be established for the continuity in the treatment of leaks and broken pipes. Only major explosions and leaks will be addressed, ”said a city notice.
This week, during a presentation to Mkhize, the metro’s head of disaster management, Shane Brown, said that 50 city officials tested positive for the virus in October, and 10 from the mayor’s office. The mayor’s infrastructure and engineering committee member and former metro mayor, Mongameli Bobani, died last week of complications related to Covid-19.
Brown said that in the first week of November, 15 city officials working in almost every department in the municipality had tested positive for the virus.
Prime Minister Oscar Mabuyane’s spokesman Mvusi Sicwetsha said the Eastern Cape provincial government would embark on mass testing, screening and tracing of people who are contacts of people infected with the coronavirus and will enforce the mandatory use of cloth masks in public places.
“The province has… resolved to enforce the wearing of masks in the Nelson Mandela Bay subway and in the Sarah Baartman district by making the wearing of masks in public mandatory and the police are proactively insisting on the wearing of masks,” he said. . DM / MC
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