Netcare
Some private healthcare providers reveal plans to deal with COVID fourth wave
The Health Department has been getting ready for an expected fourth wave and the private health sector has joined in.
Looters targeted one of the hospital group's biggest suppliers.
Premier Winde on Monday afternoon opened a COVID-19 vaccination site at the Old Mutual Park offices in Pinelands, Cape Town.
Netcare is the biggest private hospital group in South Africa and on Wednesday it said its staff were taking strain in some areas.
Ashish Lata Ramgobin was convicted of fraud, forgery amounting to R6.2 million on Monday in the Durban Commercial Crimes Court.
Netcare said that 77 of the 80 healthcare workers who tested positive for COVID-19 at its St Augustine's Hospital in Durban had recovered.
According to a report from a University of Kwazulu-Natal team of experts, the St. Augustine’s outbreak could be linked to 14% of all COVID-19 cases in KwaZulu-Natal.
The researchers conducted an independent investigation into the outbreak at the facility.
Hospital management took immediate action to contain the spread of COVID-19 and to identify all possible contacts after two staff members tested positive.
The healthcare group is already dealing with outbreaks at its St Augustine's Hospital and Kingsway Hospital where it implemented partial shutdowns.
This means there are now 83 reported cases of COVID-19 at Netcare facilities in the metro.
The employees are the latest to contract the virus just days after an outbreak was reported at the facility.
All new patient admissions at Kingsway Hospital have been halted indefinitely.
It’s not known if the patient did, in fact, contract the virus at the facility after being admitted for cardiovascular problems.
Netcare said that it had traced the outbreak to a patient who was admitted at the facility on 4 April.
Government officials said that 66 people connected with St Augustine’s Hospital had been diagnosed with COVID-19.
KZN Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane-Zulu said the hospital had been shut indefinitely and officials were now in the process of transferring patients to other facilities.
Four of the six patients who have died from the coronavirus in KZN were treated at Netcare’s St Augustine’s hospital, which has now stopped all new admissions after 20 staff members tested positive for the virus.
KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sihle Zikalala said four of the six patients who have died from the virus in the province were treated at the hospital.