Health workers have halted operations at Rietvlei Hospital, in Umzimkhulu, in southern KwaZulu-Natal demanding that the facility be sanitised after patients and nurses tested positive for COVID-19 this week. According to a Sunday Tribune report, nurses and doctors have stopped working, fearing that more staff may contract the virus.
According to a worker who asked not to be named fearing reprisal, a patient who was admitted on 16 June, tested positive and subsequently passed away. The worker feared that the district hospital with over 200 patients could spread the infection in the rural area of Umzimkhulu if proactive measures were ignored. He added that two nurses who treated the patient also tested positive, but the ward in which the patient was treated had not been disinfected.
He claimed management refused to close the wards and disinfect the affected hospital as per the instruction from the health department. A medical practitioner also complained about the fear brought on by the incidents. He said as the tracing continued it appeared that the nurses have made contact with many staff and patients.
According to the report, Ntokozo Maphisa, spokesperson for the KZN Health Department said they did not have authority to confirm positive COVID-19 cases, as this was the sole preserve of the Minister of Health.
Maphisa said all the efforts were in line with infection control and prevention guidelines from the World Health Organisation. He added that management and staff at the hospital were trained and equipped to follow these protocols. “All of the department’s facilities where staff have tested positive are either in the process of being decontaminated or have already been,” said Maphisa.
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