A new Health Department directive prescribes the facilities and support mechanisms that should be in place at the residence of anyone wishing to self-isolate or self-quarantine, as well as procedures to be followed during the isolation period, reports Legalbrief Policy Watch.
The “recommended isolation period for patients with confirmed COVID-19 infection” has been reduced from 14 to 10 days, according to a media statement issued on Friday evening by Health Minister Zweli Mkhize. However, the Minister’s new directive appears not to reflect this – possibly because 10 days is the period during which “a patient is still considered infectious”. “It should be distinguished from the point at which a patient is medically well enough to return to work”.
Gazetted on Friday afternoon in a damaged electronic file that eventually became available during the weekend, among other things the new directive prescribes the facilities and support mechanisms that should be in place at the residence of anyone wishing to self-isolate or self-quarantine, as well as procedures to be followed during the isolation period, reports Pam Saxby for Legalbrief Policy Watch.
Other matters covered in considerably more detail than in previous health directives include COVID-19 symptom screening, quarantine and related procedures to be followed during the State of Disaster in respect of anyone entering South Africa; air crew on international flights; medical evacuation flight operators; the crew of cargo and passenger ships temporarily leaving a vessel in port; maritime evacuation operators; fishing vessel operators; all persons responsible for on-board maritime safety; and cross-border truck operators. The new directive also clarifies various matters related to the cost of quarantine.
Saxby writes that withdrawing and replacing the 8 April directive includes and, in some cases, revises directions in one issued on the 25 May. One amendment allows a municipality or traditional authority to permit “more than one human remains to a maximum of three … to be buried in one grave’ should a cemetery’s carrying capacity "be exceeded as a result of COVID-19 deaths”. Another requires private and government mortuary operators to make “additional mortuary capacity and multi-transportation for mortal remains” available “should the need arise”.
The procedures to be followed by quarantine and treatment facilities when dealing with health care waste now point to the importance of ‘segregation, storage, collection, treatment, handling and disposal’ – referring personnel to the 2020 national public hygiene strategy and implementation plan.
Worryingly, says Saxby, it has apparently also become necessary to remind quarantine and isolation facility personnel that “all medical equipment … must be sterilised first before it can be used again”. In much the same vein, the Minister saw fit to issue a statement on Saturday expressing concern about “the extent to which South Africans are letting down their guard at a time when the spread of infection is surging”. It refers to “poor or no social distancing”, masks being “abandoned or not worn properly” and a “laxity setting in around frequent hand-washing”.
[link url="https://legalbrief.co.za/diary/legalbrief-today/policy-watch/covid-19-crisis-new-health-directive-gazetted/"]Full report on the Legalbrief Policy Watch site[/link]
[link url="https://www.gov.za/speeches/minister-zweli-mkhize-reduction-isolation-period-patients-confirmed-coronavirus-covid-19"]Health Department release[/link]
[link url="https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/202007/43533gon796.pdf"]Health Department directive[/link]