‘If I had my way I would’ve quarantined at home’ – Patient relishes leaving Nasrec centre

“If I had my way I would have quarantined at home but we are staying in a small place of five, my husband also went away for his quarantine so that my helper and my kids are not at risk.”

Segopodiso Seane, 41, is one of eight people in quarantine at the Gauteng government’s Nasrec field hospital.

She’ll finally be home with her family on Saturday after completing her 14-day quarantine journey on Friday. She isolated herself from her family of five to avoid infecting them.

Speaking to the media during a tour with Gauteng Health MEC Dr Bandile Masuku, Seane said there was nothing she could complain about with respect to the facility as it was clean and they were given food regularly.

She is, however, concerned about the stigma that will follow once she leaves the facility.

“We talked about it with my husband and we are going to need counselling, especially for my eight-year-old child who tested negative. She is very traumatised and she is even scared to go back to school,” Seane explained.

Masuku visited the facility to monitor patients’ experience of care and to support the staff working during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Cases in the province are expected to reach 120 000 by the end of July and 300 000 by the end of August in what has now been dubbed the “Covid-19 storm” that has arrived in the province.

The health department also shared a glimpse of one of its functional quarantine / isolation facilities in Johannesburg since it opened on 15 June 2020.

The facility, which offers just over 400 beds, has 130 patients in isolation and eight in quarantine, according to the facility manager Dr Vis Naidoo. The figures, however, are subject to change as patients move in and out of the temporary site.

In addition, the facility recorded one death of a 53-year-old male patient two weeks ago who presented “a shortness of breath”, according to the Health MEC.

Masuku noted that he was satisfied with the services being conducted at the facility despite his concerns that the structure might be too cold during winter.

“We all know how cold it gets at Nasrec and we were worried about the temperatures inside, but the installation of the high beds and the air systems have been impressive,” he explained.

The MEC further clarified that at this stage, the facility caters for “stable patients” and therefore does not have oxygen supply.

“The patients here do not require that much medical intervention but we are not ruling out the fact that at some point… escalate the services as we are putting up extra hospital beds with the numbers increasing,” he concluded.

The province is nearing the 50 000-mark with 49 937 cases, 14 097 recoveries and 282 deaths as of Friday, 3 July 2020.

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