Free State Health MEC Montseng Tsiu considers dealing with individuals infected with the Covid-19, but who remain asymptomatic, as among the main challenges facing the province in its response to the pandemic.
By May 19 the Free State had conducted 19 834 tests and recorded 165 confirmed cases, 118 recoveries and six deaths.“There are some who would not only screen but also test and the results would come out negative, and then within 14 days when they test again the results would come out positive. We’re dealing with something that is new. We’re still learning.”
Many of the province’s first infections were in people who attended a three-day-long church gathering early in March. This outbreak prompted a visit by Health Minister Zweli Mkhize. Among those who died was a 77-year-old man who was confirmed positive after the virus was detected through a swab of his remains.
“The dead were swabbed and some had cardio-respiratory illnesses such as pneumonia. We’re confident that we should be able to deal with this. Compared with other provinces such as the Western Cape and Gauteng, however, the latest statistics from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases show that by early May the Free State had only done 597 tests per 100 000 people, whereas Gauteng did 736 tests per 100 000 and the Western Cape 1 023 per 100 000 people.“You would know that the Western Cape and Gauteng account for more than 70% of the cases in the country, so it would make sense that they do a lot of tests,” he said.
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