MedicalBrief 292 - 05 March 2020
"On Wednesday, 26 February Spotlight and Daily Maverick report that they sent a combined list of 22 questions about South Africa’s state of preparedness for COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019) to the Health Department and the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD).
“The response was sent to us by Dr Lwazi Manzi, Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize’s spokesperson.”
Daily Maverick and Spotlight said that, as well as the answers to the questions, they have included the full statement delivered by Mkhize at a press conference on Sunday 1 March 2020. They said that this statement was delivered four days after their list of 22 questions were sent and as such could not be taken into account in the formulation of the 22 questions.
Minister Mkhize’s statement:
Background:
In December 2019 Chinese authorities announced the emergence of a novel coronavirus that was the causative agent for an outbreak of respiratory disease. It is believed the outbreak originated in a food market in Wuhan City, China. This virus has now come to be known as COVID-19. The symptoms are largely respiratory which can range from mild upper respiratory tract manifestations to respiratory failure, multi-organ failure and death. The mortality rate is around 3% and evidence shows that the vast majority of fatalities are patients who are immunocompromised either due to extremes of age or pre-existing conditions. Whilst there are ongoing studies, there is no proven cure and there is no vaccine."
Read more:
https://www.medicalbrief.co.za/archives/health-department-outlines-sas-preparedness-for-covid-19/
