The Department’s Technical expert, Dr Sammy Mokoena, in reply to OFM News' questions, explained allegations that residents could have infected each other due to delayed results or a backlog are simply incorrect. He further indicated that three methods were used to deliver Covid-19 results, including and those included a phone call, short message service (SMS), and the Covid Connect application, amongst others. Mokoena adds that during the peak of the results the province struggled for quite some time but that has since been corrected. He says the department’s turnaround time for a patient to receive tests results is two days.

“As I’ve said, our testing rate is high but not only that - the current information that came out from the National Institute Communicable Diseases (NICD) is that our turnaround times - meaning the time it takes you to get your results - is around two days, especially in the public sector. We make sure that the results are delivered specifically in the Free State. There are three means used to deliver the results, [namely] a phone call, a platform developed by the National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS), where you get the results via SMS, and there is also a platform that is developed. called Covid Connect,” Mokoena adds.

The province experienced an increase in the number of infections following the outbreak of the virus at a Bloemfontein-based church in March 2020.

“I can with certainty tell you the issue of the results is not a problem. It has been corrected for over a month, if not two months ago,” Mokoena adds.  

Mokoena also announced that Heidedal was hit by a cluster of cases in schools, hence it was later declared as a hotspot alongside several towns. He also alluded to the situation in Rocklands and explained that they also experienced a cluster of cases in schools and a cluster of cases included the working force. As a result, older persons were mostly infected by the virus which is a cause for concern. Mokoena also revealed that the province had been recording over 300 new infections daily since the country moved to alert level 1 of the lockdown.

 OFM News