Four people test positive in Dunoon informal settlement, says councillor

A Dunoon woman working at a retailer that has been shut down after several employees tested positive for the coronavirus, was taken away from her home on Monday in a branded coronavirus emergency vehicle.

Now family members remaining at the RDP house say everyone in the street points to the house saying “there is coronavirus in there”.

The woman is one of four people who, according to the ward councillor, have been tested positive for the virus and taken into quarantine.

When GroundUp visited yesterday, a young woman emerged from the house and confirmed that her sister, who worked at a retailer in Bothasig, had been taken to a West Coast hotel, which she named. She said her sister was told to take enough clothes for a two week stay in quarantine.

Her sister was also told to make a list of people with whom she had been in contact after the retail store was shut a week ago.

The woman told GroundUp that everyone in the street now looked at them with suspicion and it made her uncomfortable.

She shares the upgraded RDP house with four other family members. Before her sister was taken away, the family had shared crockery, and had laughed and eaten together, but she had no symptoms of illness, she said. Health workers had given the family a number to call if they felt ill.

While GroundUp was talking to her (from a distance of about 1.5 metres away and wearing a mask), about seven friends came to visit her in the house. None of them wore any protective material.

Life is continuing as normal in Dunoon. Streets are full of people, including young children playing.

At about 6pm on Tuesday, several City of Cape Town metro police and SAPS vans, and one military vehicle, were seen driving through Usasadza Street. About five armed soldiers in uniform ran through the streets telling residents to get back in the homes. Residents cheered them on.

Earlier at a meeting at the Dunoon Community Health Centre, with the manager, senior nurses and a representative from the Dunoon Health Committee, ward councillor Lubabalo Makeleni (ANC) said the hospital had reported that four Dunoon residents had tested positive for the novel coronavirus and had been removed from the township to quarantine at a hotel.

Mass Covid-19 screening in Dunoon would start tomorrow, starting with areas where the four residents lived, he said.

“These cases are from the formal settlement, not from informal settlements. Once we get to the informal settlements the shit is going to hit the fan,” said Makeleni.

Republished from GroundUp

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