The North West government has identified several hotels and guest houses to be used for mandatory quarantine.
The moves comes after three people who tested positive for the coronavirus travelled to other towns in the province and were found after being tracked down by the police and health officials.
“Self-quarantine to us, has given us problems because the individuals given instructions to self-quarantine 90% in our province have not adhered to self-quarantine rules. As a result of that, we were tracing them on each day, having broken out of where they should have been on self-quarantine,” says MEC for Health in the North West, Madoda Sambatha.
The province has recorded nine cases of COVID-19. Six cases were reported in the Bojanala region, while three other regions have recorded one case each.
Government-owned lodges have now been identified for use as quarantine sites.
“In Orion in Rustenburg, we have 12 people who are under quarantine, not self-quarantine. We took them to Rustenburg Orion because they are not sick. We will not quarantine a person who is not sick in a hospital. Hospital is for hospital cases, but people who are positive or people who are contacts of the positive people are going to be under strict surveillance,” says Sambatha.
Residents have expressed mixed feelings about this measure.
This as some locals are still not adhering to instructions to stay home during the 21-day lockdown.
In the video below, Professor Pitika Ntuli weighs in on the impact of lockdown rules on culture:
