On Thursday, the St Vincent Clinic in Cape Town’s Belhar was evacuated after a patient was suspected of having symptoms of the Covid19 Coronavirus.
The patient, which had informed the staff of her symptoms, was then transferred to Tygerberg Hospital for further tests and possible advanced health care.
The results of these tests are generally available 24 to 48 hours after testing is done, hence it is not clear at this point, what the status of the patient is.
After the clinic was evacuated, it was sanitised and is currently open and operating as normal.
The Belhar Community Health Forum released a statement in which it stated that it requested updates on the status of the patient from the health department.
It will inform the community if any information is available.
It also requested that community members and leaders remain calm and spread the message of the application of good personal hygiene.
The virus is currently spreading at alarming rates, already infecting 118000 worldwide and killing 4000.
On Wednesday, the World Health Organisation declared that the virus is a ‘pandemic’, which is generally defined as “the worldwide spread of a new disease”.
The last pandemic, which was the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic, killed hundreds of thousands across the world.
There are currently 16 confirmed cases of Coronavirus in South Africa and the Health Department has advised South Africans to apply strict precautions to avoid transmission.
These include avoiding shaking unwashed hands, regularly washing your hands and covering your cough or coughing into a handkerchief.
Symptoms for the virus include mild to severe respiratory illness with fever, cough, difficulty breathing and sore throat.