The Eastern Cape Health Department is considering converting Makaula Senior Secondary School into an isolation facility after 204 people there tested positive for COVID-19. The Times reports that the KwaBhaca (formerly Mount Frere) school made headlines when education department superintendent general Themba Kojana announced that 24 of a group of 30 pupils had tested positive for COVID-19.
A further 253 pupils and 47 support staff members were tested on Friday. The results revealed that 204 people, including pupils and staff, had tested positive.
“A team of clinicians have been sent to the school to ascertain if the hostel meets the department's minimum standards for quarantine and isolation facilities, which include but are not limited to lighting, well ventilated rooms and sanitation services,” said Eastern Cape Health spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo. He said turning the school into a quarantine facility would be “another measure of preventing the further spread of the coronavirus”.
Gauteng health authorities are monitoring COVID-19 cases at mental health facilities across the province where 168 staff and patients have tested positive, reports The Times. The affected institutions are run by the provincial health department and also contracted facilities. Two patients with underlying illnesses have died in the past nine days.
Gauteng Health spokesperson Kwara Kekana said the department had four specialised mental health facilities: Weskoppies Hospital, Sterkfontein Hospital, Tara H Moross Psychiatric Hospital and Cullinan Care and Rehabilitation Centre.
Kekana said the department has also contracted Life Esidimeni health-care centres and the Clinix Health Group which included the Waverley and Baneng care centres and Solomon Stix Morewa Hospital.
[link url="https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2020-06-23-204-test-positive-for-covid-19-at-eastern-cape-boarding-school/"]Full report in The Times[/link]