26 test positive for Covid-19 at Mediclinic Cape Town

Twenty-six people have tested positive for Covid-19 at Mediclinic Cape Town, management confirmed.

“Nearly 300 potential contacts have been tested, with the majority of these returning negative results,” Dr Stefan Smuts, the chief clinical officer of Mediclinic Southern Africa said in a statement.

Smuts said 26 people, including 15 health workers, had tested positive.

He said the group is currently in isolation at home until they recover.

“Mediclinic has made arrangements for those staff requiring accommodation to safely self-isolate and will offer daily support during this time.

“Managers will do daily check-ins with staff and counselling has been offered where needed.”

He added, “As the safety of our patients, staff and doctors is our number one priority, Mediclinic has intensified both internal and external processes guiding our response. In accordance with our stringent protocols, Mediclinic immediately reviewed the situation to identify, as a matter of urgency, all staff, doctors and patients potentially exposed.”

The national department of health also has firm processes in place governing contact tracing of those exposed to a positive individual, Smuts said.

“Mediclinic acted swiftly to mitigate the risk to all involved and we can assure the community that we have established procedures relating to staff exposure, the risk thereof and testing. Testing has been expanded and will continue until everyone on site has been tested, including all patients, doctors, employees and service providers based at the hospital.”

The medical group also strictly adheres to infection prevention and control (IPC) protocols, as laid out by the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) and World Health Organisation (WHO).

“As such, to ensure the safety of our patients, doctors and staff, we will continue with our containment plan, which entails conducting a strict proactive risk assessment at the hospital from [Monday] until May 29. During this period of assessment, testing and cleansing and disinfection, no new admissions apart from emergencies will be accepted at the facility to allow all necessary protocols to be followed.”

Smuts said: “The Covid-19 pandemic poses a serious challenge to SA and its citizens and Mediclinic is committed to playing our part in supporting the national department of health where required.”