The MEC of Health, Madoda Sambatha, says he received a report on Wednesday night 6 May about the incident and took decisive action to immediately close the facility to allow decontamination. He says a mobile clinic has been deployed to ensure access andcontinued service delivery until the decontamination of the facility. Sambatha adds that all staff members at the facility will be placed under quarantine for the next 14 days. Meanwhile, so far the province has exactly 17 active cases after 20 people recoveredfrom the virus, with no deaths reported.

The nurse is the second healthcare worker in the province to test positive, after a Klerskdorp Gynaecologist who has since recovered after testing positive earlier. "The Outbreak Response Teams are checking the suitability of their homes for self-quarantine (and)if the homes do not meet criteria for self-quarantine, they will be taken to a designated quarantine site. "This also applies to their families and patients," he adds.

Sambatha says for the next 14 days the staff of the facility will not be at work and that the Department has appointed additional staff. He, however, says the department will need to scale down on services such as hours of operation and maternity services.Sambatha adds that the clients will be serviced at other facilities. The district and Sub-district Outbreak Response Teams have already started with contact tracing for patients, staff and their families.

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