Traditional healer from Cape Town dies in Limpopo from Covid-19
The MEC for health in Limpopo, Dr Phophi Ramathuba, she said tracer teams have since been deployed visiting the surgery to disinfect it and tracing the contacts the deceased had to screen and test them.
A 55-year-old man who worked in Cape Town as a freelancer in the film industry and as a traditional healer, has passed away due to Covid-19.
During a press conference, the MEC for health in Limpopo, Dr Phophi Ramathuba, said the man is believed to have fallen ill while in Cape Town.
“His son chose to drive him back to the province where he arrived on 15 April to consult both his prophet and his traditional healer.”
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On 20 April, when they noticed his condition was worsening, the family took him to one of the private practitioners in the area where he was declared dead on arrival after spending less than 30 minutes at the practice.
“As a province we have been monitoring all deaths. We recommend that swabs are taken from all suspicious cases to be tested. This was done in this case and unfortunately his results came back positive.”
She said tracer teams have since been deployed visiting the surgery to disinfect it and tracing the contacts the deceased had to screen and test them. The doctor and his five staff members have been tested and are now in quarantine. The surgery has since been closed.
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* She also gave information on the provincial mass household screening program.
“We deployed 9856 community health care workers. By Friday, 24 April, they had visited 800 190 households in Limpopo.”
In the process they screened 2780065 people. This constitute over 50 percent of the entire population of the province. Of this, 2783 people were referred for testing and 1770 were tested. Out of the 1770 people who were tested, one person tested positive.
