Gauteng Health Comms.
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In a strive to manage the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19) in the country, government rolled out mass screening, testing, tracing and medical management programme.
President of the Republic of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa announced that around 10 000 field workers will be visiting homes in villages, towns and cities to screen residents for COVID-19 symptoms.
"Those with symptoms will be referred to either local or mobile clinics for testing. People who are found to be infected with Coronavirus but have mild or no symptoms will continue in isolation at home or at a facility provided and those with severe symptoms will be transferred to hospitals," said MEC for health Dr Bandile Masuku.
As part of the programme, 60 mobile laboratories were launched yesterday and will be deployed in various identified hot spot areas to help increase the capacity of testing.
These mobile units have an extensive tracing system which will be rapidly deployed to trace those who have been in contact with confirmed Coronavirus cases and to monitor the geographical location of new cases in real time.
MEC Masuku also called on the community to assist healthcare workers in executing their duties effectively during these trying times.
"Health workers are there an essential service to serve the community. I call on everyone to exercise patience with our staff during this time of crisis,"
"In addition to supporting our healthcare workers, I plead with the community to continue washing their hands with soap and water, maintain acceptable social distancing and also stay at home and only go out for essentials to avoid further spread of this virus, concluded MEC Masuku.
In support of this programme, Telkom and Samsung has donated 1500 devices with sim cards that will be used by tracing teams.  This will help improve the efficiency of the team.