Mayor instates containment and mitigation measures to curb Covid-19

The announcement comes off the back of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s declaration of National State of Disaster on March 15. According to the mayor, following extensive consultation with the City’s senior managers and in line with the best practice measures outlined by the National Department of Health and the World Health Organisation, the City of Ekurhuleni has decided to embark on the following measures:

Covid-19 joint operations centre

The City has activated a Joint Operations Centre (JOC) to coordinate the metro’s response to the Covid-19 outbreak. The JOC is composed of senior officials from all the City’s departments and will convene every Tuesday and Thursday.

“The JOC will provide me with daily situational reports on developments relating to the outbreak. The JOC will meet with various stakeholders regularly to receive input and provide updates on developments surrounding the outbreak,” said the mayor.

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Workplace management

He said the City believes the health and safety of its employees remain a top priority. To this effect, the City is currently rolling out the following measures:

• The City will be allocating hand sanitising stations at all entrances of government buildings and will be enforcing hygiene protocols to all individuals entering and exiting the buildings.

• The City will be introducing scheduled sanitation of commonly used objects across the City, this includes telephones, door handles, taps and desks, among other things.

• The City is currently investigating the introduction of staggered reporting times across the City’s depots in order to minimise the number of people gathered at these venues.

• The City is in the process of setting up a dedicated hotline for employees who have any questions regarding Covid-19 and possible symptoms.

• The City is considering the introduction of a work-from-home protocol for high-risk staff members and will make an announcement to this effect in the near future.

• The Human Resource Department will further publish leave management guidelines for the current National State of Disaster.

• A moratorium on all official staff travel, domestic and international, have been enforced until further notice.

Social distancing

The mayor said the City recognises that globally, social distancing has emerged as one of the most effective methods of slowing down the Covid-19 pandemic. With this in mind, the City has decided to enforce the closure of the following government-owned facilities:

• community halls

• civic centres

• stadiums and sports fields

• lakes

• public swimming pools

“All upcoming City events have been postponed until further notice. The City is currently investigating an innovative solution to conduct public participation through digital platforms to avoid public gatherings,” said the mayor.

“Public cemeteries will remain open throughout the state of disaster. Families are advised to keep funeral attendance to under 100 people and exercise punctuality during their service to avoid contact with other funeral parties. Public libraries will not be allowed to host more than 100 people at a time and all visitors to our libraries will be required to be seated a minimum of 1.5m apart. The City is considering shortening the operating hours of libraries.

“Restaurants and taverns are advised not to exceed the limit of 100 patrons within their facilities. The City also calls upon these establishments to introduce strict hygiene protocols for their staff and customers. The City has also urged all shopping centres and malls to monitor the number of customers entering their facilities. We also encourage retailers to introduce measures to mitigate panic-buying by customers.

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The mayor said the City will be rolling out a mass public awareness campaign regarding the outbreak.

Health facilities

In order to minimise the potential strain the pandemic might exert on our public hospitals. The City will be improving our local clinics with the following interventions:

• Sanitation stations are currently set up at the entrance of all of the City’s clinics.

• All clinics will allocate isolation rooms for patients that display symptoms of the virus, where they will be tested and quarantined before being sent to a hospital.

• Further training of clinical staff will continue in order to ensure they are suitably prepared to deal with potential cases.