Eastern Cape labour centre closes after employee tests positive for Covid-19

The Department of Employment and Labour Centre in the Eastern Cape has closed as an employee at office tested positive for Covid-19.

The Eastern Cape provincial office in East London has been closed as of Monday.

This comes after the Vredenburg Labour Centre in the Western Cape also closed following an employee testing positive for the virus.

“To ensure that service delivery is not hindered, the officials will work remotely from home and will only come to the office in shifts with no interaction with the public due to lockdown regulations,” said the department.

The temporary closure of the office is intended to allow all workers who may have been in contact with the infected employee to be monitored, and for the offices to be decontaminated.

The chief director of provincial operations, Nomfundo Douw-Jack confirmed that the official in question had interacted with other employees who were working at the same section.

The close contacts of the official had been advised accordingly, and will now be quarantined for a period of 14 days before coming back to work.

Labour centres across the country opened on Monday and are following the necessary precautionary measures, including temperature screening, maintenance of social distancing, and use of personal protective equipment to ensure that staff and clients are protected from infecting each other.

It is expected that the Eastern Cape office, will open to the public on 12 June 2020.

(Compiled by Molefe Seeletsa)

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