Covid-19 patient from India treated at Amanzimtoti hospital

A patient, who recently arrived from India, was treated in isolation for Covid-19 allegedly at Netcare Kingsway Hospital. Countries across the world have been crippled by the third wave of Covid-19 and new variants of the virus have emerged, therefore, the public is reminded to observe all necessary protocols.

“Although Covid-19 screening is performed at South African border posts, this, unfortunately, cannot fully rule out new cases and potentially new variants entering our country, either directly from their country of origin or via connecting routes,” said senior clinical advisor and head of infection control of Netcare’s hospital division, Dr Caroline Maslo.

Maslo said that Covid-19 case numbers are currently extremely low in Netcare hospitals.

“We can, however, confirm that one patient who had recently travelled from India was treated in isolation for Covid-19 at a hospital in KwaZulu-Natal. We remain vigilant in maintaining strict safety precautions in our facilities and apply an abundance of caution in treating all patients. The National Department of Health’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) would be better placed to advise on any new variants detected in South Africa, and how these may differ from the strains that have been in circulation here to date.”

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The Covid-19 situation in India remains severe with the country reaching almost 20 million cases. However, according to Maslo, South Africa’s Covid-19 test positivity rate is still relatively low at five per cent.

“Although we remain cautiously optimistic for now, it remains vital that every person does their part and practice preventative measures, including social distancing, hand washing, sanitising, wearing a face mask covering both the mouth and nose and avoiding poorly ventilated areas,” she added.

Minister of Health, Dr Zweli Mkhize said the government shares the people’s concerns over the importation of the B.1.617 variant now circulating in India however, it has not been detected in South Africa.

“We wish to reassure South Africans that we are a very capable nation that knows how to deal with the burden of a variant of concern. Our teams remain on high alert to survey, detect and contain the spread of Covid-19 in general. We confirm that the B.1.617 variant, circulating widely in India, has not been detected, however the genomics teams are working on some samples and we will need to allow the time it takes to sequence before we get an answer.”

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