The state laboratory has dramatically improved its turnaround time for the province, which accounts for 65% of the cases reported to date
A security guard at a temporary Covid-19 field hospital at the Cape Town International Convention Centre in Cape Town. Picture: REUTERS/MIKE HUTCHINGS
Extensive delays in getting results from the National Health Laboratory Service , which were partly due to problems sourcing test kits and reagents from international suppliers, prompted the provincial health department to turn to private laboratories for help and to ration tests. The turnaround time for tests for hospital patients has been reduced from as long as five days to within 24 hours, and some patients are now getting their results on the same day they are tested, he said. “We are very heartened by the backlog being worked away to that extent. There is an undertaking by our colleagues [at the NHLS] to do whatever they can so they will work away the backlog completely by tomorrow.
Public hospitals in the Western Cape have seen a rapid increase in Covid-19 patients in the past few weeks, and the province has already begun admitting patients to field hospitals in Khayelitsha and central Cape Town.
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