SA activates Coronavirus emergency operations centre
Activation of the operations centre on South African shores means that there are dedicated staff working exclusively on the Coronavirus.
THE Health Department has activated an emergency operations centre to deal with the global outbreak of the Coronavirus.
This follows the declaration by the World Health Organisation (WHO) of the Coronavirus as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) on Thursday. The declaration comes in the wake of a 170 people losing their lives to the virus that was first identified in Wuhan City, in the Hubei Province of China.
The WHO first became aware of the respiratory disease of unknown cause on 31 December 2019. On 7 January 2020, a positive pathogen was identified which is known as the Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV).
With 7 736 confirmed cases of the virus in China and 83 exportations to other countries, the WHO Emergency Committee held its second meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, on Thursday to declare the PHEIC and outline efforts to prevent the spread of the virus.
Related article: SA beefs up surveillance amid Coronavirus outbreak
Activation of the operations centre on South African shores means that there are dedicated staff working exclusively on the Coronavirus.
In addition to the operations centre, the department announced the following hospitals as centres for isolation and treatment of people infected with Coronavirus:
Polokwane Hospital in Limpopo
Rob Ferreira Hospital in Mpumalanga
Charlotte Maxeke Hospital, Steve Biko Hospital and Tembisa Hospitals in Gauteng
Grace Hospital in KwaZulu-Natal
Klerksdorp Hospital in the North West
Kimberly Hospital in the Northern Cape
Pelonomi Hospital in the Free State
Livingstone Hospital in the Eastern Cape
Tygerberg Hospital in the Western Cape
“These centres have been chosen for their ability to isolate, manage, contain and conduct research on suspected or confirmed cases of Coronavirus. This by no means suggests that other facilities do not have the ability to manage a suspected case that presents for the first time. It is simply a mechanism to ensure that we can centralise coordination and data collection,” said Health minister Zweli Mkhize.
Related article: China urges no weddings, short funerals to contain virus
Mkhize said the 24-hotline set up at the NICD to field questions from clinicians on the outbreak has also experienced high call volumes – demonstrating a high vigilance among healthcare workers.
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