22 Mar 2020

Mahalapye District Health Management Team (DHMT) head, Dr Maxwell Mungisi says the first suspected COVID-19 case in their area tested negative.

Speaking in an interview last Thursday, Dr Mungisi said the suspect was a female who was screened after complaining of headache and fever. He said the person had travelled to South Africa, but did not have any pronounced respiratory symptoms.

“We ruled out the possibility of her being infected with COVID-19 after screening,” he said.

He said the woman was discharged the same day and asked to go home and self-quarantine.

Dr Mungisi, who is also the district hospital superintendent, urged anyone who had travelled to high risk countries or had contact with anyone coming from those countries to call the 997 toll free number so that they could go and pick them up for screening.

“Such people should, by all means possible, avoid travelling in public transport to minimise the spread of the virus should they be infected,” he pleaded. 

He said the Mahalapye DHMT had already prepared a 10-bed facility at Moko Primary Hospital where any suspected COVID-19 cases would be isolated.

Dr Mungisi also stressed the importance of basic infection control measures at work and home. He said people should continuously wash hands with clean water and soap or use sanitisers, not shake hands and keep a distance of at least two metres apart.

To minimise contamination at the hospital, he said they had availed hand sanitisers and require everyone entering the hospital to use them. 

Dr Mungisi also urged bus owners to implement all preventative measures such as sanitising metals that people touched in the bus and keeping windows open for ventilation.

He said the hospital had recently sent a team of health officials to distribute educational pamphlets about COVID-19 at the Mahalapye Bus Rank, adding that the team also visited schools. Ends