A provincial wide Covid-19 screening operation has resulted in the screening of almost 250 000 people in the Free State. This comes after the Department of Health expanded screening to all five districts of the province last week.
Free State Health spokesperson, Mondli Mvambi, said thanks to targeting hotspots and the use of cellular technology, the operation has resulted in 1460 people being tested. About 102 positive Covid-19 cases have been confirmed in the Free State so far.
“As the door-to-door mass screenings are being rolled out to all five regions of the province, the department has managed to screen a total of 241 629 people with 1460 of them being tested. This process has targeted all the hotspots of the province as directed by the efforts of the tracer teams and the digital mapping exercise that were done in collaboration with cellphone companies,” he said.
According to Mvambi, 54 304 people were screened while 707 were tested in Mangaung. In Fezile Dabi 76 271 were screened and 74 were tested while 20 144 have been screened and 136 were tested in Lejweleputswa. Thabo Mofutsanyana had 68 338 screenings and 139 tests, followed by Xhariep with 22 572 people having been screened while 129 of them were tested.
Out of the 102 confirmed cases of Covid-19 since its outbreak, 89 were discovered in Mangaung.
“This is a war and we are determined to fight and win it. Our delight is derived from the levels of dedication that we see from multidisciplinary health professionals, allied health workers, support staff and partners that we have assembled in our command operation centres throughout the province in different districts at mass screening sites, and conducting door-to-door work” said Free State MEC for Health, Montseng Tsiu. –
Nomaqhawe Mtebele
