Three KZN emergency services bases close after staff test positive

The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health apparently agreed on Monday to test all staff working at its Emergency Medical Rescue Services (EMRS) bases for Covid-19 after infections led to the closure of the KwaMashu, Clairwood and oThongathi ambulance bases last week.

The National Union of Public Service and Allied Workers (Nupsaw) provincial organiser, Sifiso Dlamini, said the bases had to be closed after one staff member at each base had tested positive over the past two weeks.

He said the department had initially closed only the KwaMashu base last weekend after workers’ downed tools, demanding that the base be sanitised and all staff tested, following the detection of a Covid-19 case the previous Thursday. Further cases were detected, one each at oThongathi and Clairwood bases last Wednesday, and the bases there were then closed, he said.

“The department has finally agreed to test all employees, and some have gone back to work and are partially operating from ambulances which they park outside the base,” he said.

Dlamini said no security had been provided for the staff and the union was still waiting for the department to sanitise the bases before workers could go back inside.

“That is why we are saying, based on these three incidents the department must embark on testing all employees so that everyone will know his status, and if one tests positive they can be isolated and services can continue,” he said.

He alleged that the department had initially not informed staff of the infection at the KwaMashu base where about 60 staff were employed. There are about 100 staff at the Clairwood base and 60 at oThongathi.

The KZN Department of Health spokesperson, Ntokozo Maphisa, said: “In accordance with the law, the department does not confirm positive Covid-19 cases as this is the sole preserve of the minister of health.

“As a matter of principle, where a positive Covid-19 case has been identified, contact mapping and tracing is conducted, as well as the screening, testing and quarantining of people who have come into contact with the affected individuals, and the isolation of those who test positive.”

“Where necessary and warranted by a formal risk assessment exercise, the affected section of a health facility may be temporarily closed in order to allow for decontamination.”

Dlamini said this was in line with World Health Organization infection control and prevention guidelines, which management and staff at the facility were trained and equipped to implement.

“All of the department’s facilities, including EMS bases, where staff have tested positive are either in the process of being decontaminated, or have already been. Where feasible, the district infection prevention and control co-ordinator also goes to conduct a post-decontamination inspection,” he said.

DA member of the provincial legislature, Dr Rishigen Viranna, said it was a concern that the department had only taken action after staff had downed tools.

He said staff had been placed on special Covid-19 leave which had led to “massive delays” in ambulance response times as the Phoenix base had to respond to emergencies usually covered by the KwaMashu team.

“The DA regards this situation as unacceptable. Our health-care workers are the heroes in this battle against the coronavirus – a phrase we have heard numerous times from KZN Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane-Zulu. Yet the reality on the ground is that she and her department are not anywhere near enough to protecting and testing health-care workers in the province,” he said.

He said the DA had written to the MEC and head of department to call for “the immediate disinfection and fogging of the base and ambulances; the urgent testing of all paramedics who worked the same shift as the infected paramedic; and further screening of all workers at the base.

In other news – Pictures: Tshegofatso Pule laid to rest #RIPTshego

Our condolences to the family and friends of Miss Pule who died at such a young age, may her soul rest in peace! Tshegofatso Pule’s casket is carried during a funeral service for her in Meadowlands, Soweto. Read more

Source: IOL