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Senior Limpopo official tests positive for COVID-19

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A senior official in the Limpopo Office of the Premier has tested positive for the coronavirus (COVID-19). Premier Spokesperson Kenny Mathivha says the official is in self-isolation and all people who had contact with him have been traced and are in quarantine.

This is the second person to test positive in the Office of the Premier after a police officer manning a guard room tested positive three months ago.

In the past week, three Premiers – Alan Winde from the Western Cape, Job Mokgoro from North West and David Makhura from Gauteng – tested positive for the virus.

The 72-year-old Mokgoro is making good progress after deciding to admit himself to hospital while the other two premiers are in self-isolation at home.

No COVID-19 field hospital for Limpopo

Limpopo Health MEC Phophi Ramathuba said on Friday that there will be no field hospital built at stadia to accommodate COVID-19 patients in Limpopo, in anticipation of a surge in infections.

She said that the department is instead increasing capacity at existing hospitals using available land.

Ramathuba said this is much more affordable and sustainable in light of available funds and resources.

“The beds are ready at all our hospital facilities. We are not going to build any field hospital in a stadium which after COVID-19, we will not be able to utilise. We have agreed with Treasury. With the resources they have given us, we are expanding our capacity in the existing hospitals that are currently there because maybe because we are a rural province, our hospitals have got enough land and enough space. So, we just need to expand within the existing infrastructure, which is quite cheaper and also quite sustainable because we are a resourceful strained province.”

Limpopo Health Department says health facilities will not cope with the rates of COVID-19 cases if 10% of the province’s population is infected with the virus:

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