The City of Ekurhuleni on Thursday closed the Duduza Clinic in Nigel, Ekurhuleni, after a staff nurse tested positive for COVID-19.
The staff nurse in question is said to have attended a prayer breakfast at the Divine Restoration Ministries in Bloemfontein in the Free State Province on March 10 2020, according to municipality authorities.
On Thursday, Ekurhuleni mayor Mzwandile Masina handed over two mobile clinics to the Duduza community after metro officials closed the clinic indefinitely.
Masina said staff from surrounding clinics will be deployed to the mobile clinics and will be required to wear personal protective equipment and practice stringent hygiene protocols when working with the public.
The nurse, according to a statement from the city authorities, underwent a polymerase chain reaction test for COVID-19 on 30 March 2020, after being identified as a contact of the Bloemfontein gathering.
The results returned positive on 31 March 2020 and the nurse has subsequently been placed under quarantine and is currently under medical observation.
Masina said it took the municipality some time to find the nurse who was part of the church in Bloemfontein.
“We continue to call for calm within our communities as we respond to cases of COVID-19 in and around Ekurhuleni. What is of the utmost importance is that we isolate the virus wherever it rears its ugly head,” said Masina.
“As a City, we wish our nurse a speedy recovery. It is important that I reiterated that the fastest way to avert community transmissions of COVID-19 is to stay home and adhere to the regulations of the 21-day nation-wide lockdown,” said Executive Mayor Masina.
(Compiled Inside Politics staff)
