South Africa Plans Mass Screening to Tackle Coronavirus

(Bloomberg) -- South Africa will roll out a mass screening program for the coronavirus and dispatch about 10,000 field workers to check up on people in their homes, the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to do so.

“We’ve had a very defensive, reactive approach,” Zweli Mkhize, South Africa’s health minister, told reporters on Tuesday. Now, “we are getting our ground operations up and running, scaling up our offensive.”

The screening program was announced late Monday by President Cyril Ramaphosa, four days into a 21-day lockdown that has shuttered businesses and mines. The army has been deployed to enforce the lockdown and alcohol and cigarette sales have been banned.

The field workers will refer people with symptoms to local clinics or mobile clinics for testing, and those with severe symptoms will be transferred to hospitals. People who are infected but show no or moderate symptoms will remain in isolation at home or at a facility provided by the government.

South Africa’s swift response to the outbreak appears to be paying off. The infection rate isn’t increasing as much as initially projected, Mkhize said. While projections showed the total could reach between 4,000 and 5,000 by the end of April, “we might not even get there,” he said.

South Africa has more confirmed infections than any other nation on the continent, with its tally standing at 1,353 by Tuesday afternoon, and five deaths. About 39,500 people have been tested so far on a population of 59 million.

As testing is scaled up, the government expects numbers will increase but “I don’t feel we are very far behind the spread of infections,” Mkhize said. It’s too early to say whether the lockdown will be extended beyond April 16, he said.

While most citizens are complying with the lockdown, the government is concerned that some people continue to ignore the dangers posed by the virus. It’s also considering additional measures to alleviate the hardship caused by the restrictions.

“This is uncharted territory for us all,” Ramaphosa said in a televised address Monday. “We have never experienced a situation like this before and a number of mistakes will be made, but we ask for our people’s understanding that all this is being done for the good of everyone.”

Throughout Africa, there have been more than 5,300 confirmed infections, data collated by Johns Hopkins University shows. At least 10 nations on the continent have imposed a full or partial lockdown.

Botswana, which has three confirmed cases, became the latest country to restrict all movements, ordering a lockdown for 28 days starting April 2. The government is finalizing a stimulus package for businesses and will offer debt relief and wage subsidies, President Mokgweetsi Masisi said.

Zimbabwe, which started a 21-day lockdown Tuesday, is allocating additional funds to fight the virus, and will give cash payouts to 1 million vulnerable households, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said. The government will fill 4,000 vacant medical posts and create 200 new ones, he said.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.