Screenings for the elderly and sick

A public screening and testing drive for Covid-19 was successful in its mission, despite one or two hiccups.

City of Joburg’s Region B Covid-19 outreach on 22 May saw medical personnel visit 10 locations around the region for screening and testing for the deadly virus.

Four of the sites visited were retirement villages.

The City’s target group included those with flu-like symptoms, people over 60-years-old and those with co-morbid chronic conditions such as diabetes, asthma, hypertension, HIV and TB.

There were plenty of medical staff at all sites and things ran smoothly in general.

At Eventide Home for the Aged in Emmarentia, the outreach was carried out efficiently and was over in about 45 minutes.”It did not take long at all and it was excellent,” said Robert Nel of the home.

At Linden Swimming Pool however, tension was in the air as community members had to stand outside waiting for an hour and a half before screening could even start.

The outreach was set to begin at 9am, and that was when people started queuing up, but medical personnel were only ready for them at 10.30am.

This created a backlog and a queue of 30 people had to wait in the sun with only a couple of chairs available.

This was not the case in Windsor East, where a much larger team of medical personnel set up shop on the pavement outside Foodzone.

One woman, speaking under condition of anoymity, said the process was efficient and quick and barely took any time at all.

Another woman, who finished her screening and was judged by medical staff as requiring a test, had to wait longer for the test to be concluded.

“They said they would phone me if I have the virus. It was not nice though. It was sore. They put a long thing up my nose,” she complained.Another woman who also had to be tested for the virus said it did not matter at all how long it took to do the test, as long as she did not have coronavirus.

Other locations where the outreach was conducted included Randburg Taxi Rank, Ekklesia Park in Blairgowrie, Deansgate Retirement Village in Craighall Park, El Corro Shopping Centre in Valeriedene, Randburg Square, George Lea Park in Parkmore and Garden Village in Bordeaux.