Dr Keith Cloete became head of the Western Cape Health Department on April 1 2020, two weeks into South Africa’s COVID-19 lockdown level 5. Biénne Huisman asked him about the long road from a childhood in District Six to the blur of meetings in the Western Cape’s COVID-19 engine room.
Lockdown has been difficult for most people in South Africa, but residents in the South Durban Basin describe their experiences as tantamount to a health hostage situation as they are caught between polluted air from petrochemical industries and the COVID-19 virus. Nomfundo Xolo investigates.
On the ground in the Eastern Cape and from recent proceedings in parliament, it seems clear that there is a water management crisis in the OR Tambo District – a crisis with public health implications beyond just COVID-19.
Siyabonga Kamnqa visited shelters in Cape Town to chat to homeless people about their lives in the time of COVID-19 and under lockdown. He also asked government what they’ve done to assist and protect these vulnerable members of our society.
The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority has approved its first COVID-19 antibody test amid criticism that it is too slow and too cautious in approving applications for the registration of such tests.
Since January Dr Arifa Parker has served at the coalface of South Africa’s fight against COVID-19. Biénne Huisman chatted to her about what life is like in the eye of the storm.
South Africa’s strategy to defeat COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019) is to lockdown the country and upscale testing to quickly identify individuals who may have been infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Regulations have been published setting out how things will work under South Africa’s 21-day COVID-19 lockdown. Here we answer some of the top questions on what people in the country may or may not do in this time.
While public health experts welcome the lockdown as “the right thing to do”, some warn that a lockdown alone is not the silver bullet.
While many recovering addicts are scared of catching the COVID-19 virus, many are also frightened of how they’ll cope without AA and NA meetings as more and more of these meetings are being cancelled.
We are a world and a nation at war and if we don’t respond accordingly, we will suffer serious casualties – infrastructure, jobs, economic growth, food security, social cohesion and life itself, writes a team of public health doctors as they call on all South Africans to join them as they pledge to put the ‘(YO)U back into UBUNTU’.
Host Nomatter Ndebele chats to RHAP director Russell Rensburg about the major reforms underway in the South African healthcare system.