In an invigorated effort to fight the scourge of Covid-19, Telkom and Samsung handed over “1500 mobile handsets” to the Department of Health to aid trace the novel coronavirus contacts.

Dr. Zweli Mkhize, Minister of Health, received the mobile devices from Telkom Group CEO (Chief Executive Officer) Mr Sipho Maseko and Samsung CEO Mr Sung Yoon.

Yesterday, Dr. Mkhize launched mobile sampling and testing centers which will visit different districts with high incidents of Covid-19 cases.

From the 60 new mobile centers the National Health Laboratory Services (NHLS) procured, the current fleet adds up to 67. Until yesterday, the NHLS had only seven (7) of these.

The mobile screening and sampling centers will increase the capacity for testing the pandemic nationwide. On Monday March 30, President Cyril Ramaphosa made mention of “10, 000 fieldworkers” who will visit households in the village and townships to scale-up and accelerate the tracking of infected people.

The mobile handsets for tracing contacts given by the two Telecoms giants in SA will “be distributed to provinces, with Gauteng being the first beneficiary,” the Minister said.

Moreover, the Dr. Mkhize reiterated that South Africa’s strategy is to confront the fatal virus with facts. By yesterday, there were 1380 cases reported in SA and only five (deaths) linked to the plague.