South Africa Hospital closed down as 48 staff test positive for COVID-19

The fight against COVID-19 is ongoing all over the world, and on a daily basis many frontline workers, especially hospital staff put themselves out there to save thousands of lives.

This is no surprise as 48 staff of a private hospital in South Africa have tested positive out of the 66 people tested. The hospital has been closed, according to South Africa’s Health Minister, Dr Zweli Mkhize.

The St Augustine Hospital in the coastal city of Durban has been on the radar of the health ministry for a while now due to valid concerns about the safety of its staff, and the overwhelming number of people trooping into the facility amid the coronavirus pandemic, BBC reported.

Last Friday, the number of cases associated with the hospital became more apparent, the ministry said. It was then that an urgent appeal was made to anyone who had trooped into the facility from the beginning of March to avail themselves for testing.

It was of the belief of the provincial health minister that the hospital might not have been entirely transparent about the number of COVID-19 cases it was treating. Also, they might have not been meticulous when testing for the virus.

Currently, all the patients that were at the facility are being checked for the virus and those whose results come out as negative will be sent to other hospitals in the area. Those who churn out positive results will be kept at St Augustine for further treatment.

Netcare, the operators of the hospital in question have issued a statement that “a deep clean” of the hospital was underway.

In the statement, Netcare said the ideal situation would be for all hospitals to screen patients and everyone alike walking into the facility for the virus regularly but truthfully, that arrangement is impossible.