Health office closes due to Covid-19

The Nelson Mandela Bay health district office is closed after several staff members tested positive for the coronavirus.

Eastern Cape health spokesperson Siyanda Manana confirmed the closure on Friday and said it was expected to reopen on Monday.

“Four staff members [have tested] positive. [The office was] decontaminated yesterday [Thursday]. Staff will be at work on Monday,” Manana said.

The metro was identified as a Covid-19 hotspot in the province and with 3,492 cases as at Wednesday, it has the most cases in the Eastern Cape.

So far, 1,601 people have recovered while 86 have died.

Protests have erupted in the last two weeks across hospitals in the metro where staffers accused hospital management of a lack of transparency when it came to positive cases at public institutions.

At Livingstone Hospital, staffers went on a go-slow and cleaners refused to work, while patients were turned away at the casualty ward.

For a whole week, clinics in KwaNobuhle remained closed, with patients also being turned away at the gate by security guards.

On Friday, patients wanting to access medical care or to fetch their chronic medication were turned away at the gate of the Motherwell clinic.

A woman who had taken her two children was told by a security guard that the clinic had been closed for about a week.

“The security only takes those who want to take Covid-19 tests,” the woman, who did not give her name, said.

Further questions have been sent to the department of health.

This is a developing story.