Nasrec Field Hospital closed
JOBURG – Of the four quarantine and isolation sites opened last year, three were closed in October 2020 with the Nasrec being the last.
Evidence-based scientific advice results in the closure of the Covid-19 Nasrec Field Hospital.
As of 28 February, the Nasrec Field Hospital has been decommissioned and branded as non-operational. This has been confirmed by the Gauteng Health Department head of communication Motalatale Modiba. He said that the last patients at the facility were discharged and released on 28 February. “The last 18 patients that were at the facility were released on 26 February.
Thirteen of them have recovered, four are completing their isolation at one of our facilities and only one is receiving medical attention at the Chris Hana Baragwanth Academic Hospital.” In April 2020, a section of the Nasrec Expo Centre was converted into a Covid-19 quarantining and isolating facility. With a bed capacity of over 2 000, the centre has been accommodating, treating and assisting Covid-19 patients who did not have the space or resources to do so at their homes or places of residence.
The key purpose of the centre was to help ease the pressure from hospitals and clinics during the pandemic and has been successful in doing so, thanks to the intermediate care section of the facility. Since its opening over 1 600 patients were seen and assisted at the facility. According to Modiba, the evidence suggested that there is no a need for the facility any more. Workers at the Nasrec facility have since been redeployed to other sites. Of the four quarantine and isolation sites opened last year, three were closed in October 2020 with the Nasrec being the last.
The provincial health team is confident and ensured that the department has the capacity to currently assist Covid-19 patients and the increase of patients in the expected third wave.
