On Tuesday, April 2020, South Africa recorded the death of the 13th person due to the stranglehold of the deadly Covid-19 pandemic.
Health Minister, Dr. Zweli Mkhize announced in a media briefing that out of the 66 people who tested positive for Covid-19, “about 48” were staff members at St. Augustine’s Hospital in Durban.
The story emerged when the Minister traced the deceased was transferred from St Augustine’s to Parklands Hospital (Netcare) in Durban.
The Minister signaled a trend which pointed to four (4) patients who died from the same hospital. St. Augustine’s, under the Netcare private hospitals group, has been partially closed, confirmed the Minister.
The 60-year-old man was suffering stage 4 prostate cancer according to the Dr. Mkhize. He became the 13th person in SA to succumb to the merciless Covid-19 pandemic.
The cases climbed from 1 749 to 1 845 Wednesday April 8 and the number of deaths for Covid-19 raised from 13 to 18 in SA. Today, they stand at 1 934.
More than 300 people have been tested at the same hospital and the Minister advised a much broader examination. A government delegation has been dispatched to oversee the admitted patients, further testing and decontamination of the mothballed section and other parts that require fumigation.
The Premier of KwaZulu-Natal Province confirmed the investigation at Netcare St Augustine’s Hospital.
Motsepe Foundation PPE donation
The Minister of Health appeared alongside the Motsepe family and other business partners in solidarity to ramp up the fight against the exterminating virus.
The gathering was centered around the donation of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for the medical fraternity to be made available to all provinces in SA.
The media briefing was hosted by Motsepe Foundation Tuesday April 7 to donate PPEs to reinforce the government’s efforts to combat the coronavirus that has engulfed the entire world.
Patrice Motsepe, the Chairman of the Foundation, highlighted the important aggressive measures the government embarked on speedily.
Stavros Nicolaou of Business Unity South Africa (BUSA) announced, among other things, that supplies were 900 000 pairs of gloves, 20 000 goggles and 120 000 M95 surgical masks, Nicolaou revealed. These PPEs will need to be rationed, he cautioned, they can not be rolled out at go.
The Motsepe Foundation worked with the private sector including Naspers, Business Unity South Africa, Solidarity Fund, inter alia, to aid the country in this emergency period of unprecedented higher need.
The Minister thanked the Motsepe family and the private sector for their flexible businesses’ coordinated response to the deadly epidemic.
Today, Vodacom follwed the Telkom’s and Samsung’s example to heed the government call and donated 20 000 handsets to be used in the tracking effort of people who may have come into contact with Covid-19-positive persons.