GAUTENG HEALTH CLOSES MIDRAND QUARANTINE SITE AMIDST THREAT OF A “SECOND WAVE”

The Eskom Convention Centre in Midrand has been closed as a quarantine site. The site was contracted by the Gauteng Provincial Government to be used as an isolation and quarantine site of COVID-19 positive patients in the province. Due to low demand for services at the facility and the need to make use of the venue by Eskom the site will be closed by the end of November.

The other sites that were used for similar purposes were Telkom in Olifantfontein, Transnet in Esselen Park and Nasrec Convention Centre. However, The Gauteng Provincial Government will not close down the NASREC field hospital until January next year. This is due to the fact that the threat of COVID-19 infections has not been completely reduced in the Gauteng Province.

At the time of publishing, the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Gauteng stood at 225 559 with 204 424 recoveries and 4 621 deaths. In the City of Johannesburg’s Region A which includes Kaalfontein, Allandale, Ebony Park and Ivory Park they are 9,162 COVID-19 Cases with 8,537 recoveries.

“The projected peak was not realised in September as per initial projections, the threat of the second wave of infections still remains according to the World Health Organisation” explained Gauteng Acting MEC of Health Jacob Mamabolo.

“The Province is cautious on it’s decisions to start reducing number of beds outside hospital environments without consideration of underlying threats of a second wave which is evidently being realised in other countries” said MEC Mamabolo.

MEC Mamabolo further expressed gratitude to all the state-owned enterprises for their support and for opening their door to the public as the country faced the worst pandemic in centuries.