The department of Health confirms that the Tigane Healthcare Centre near Hartbeesfontein was rocked by the 12 positive cases. The departmental spokesperson, Tebogo Lekgethwane, confirms that 10 of the reported positive cases are professional nurses. Lekgethwane says the clinic is currently closed for decontamination and rearranging services since there is no extra staff available.

The facility will now operate for 8 hours until the full staff complement is back after their quarantine and we can also confirm that several general staff members who were not positive would be returning to work once the decontamination has been completed,” he adds.

Lekgethwane says contact tracing to determine the affected staff members has started, all the affected staff and their contacts - once identified - will be expected to strictly comply with Covid-19 regulations with regards to isolation.  

Lekgethwane adds that the night staff will resume daily duties on Thursday 9 December 2021, since they were not affected. It’s not yet known if the cluster of cases are cases of the Omicron variant.

Meanwhile, the province has a total number of over 157 800 confirmed Covid-19 cases with over 148 600 people who have recovered from the virus. At least 94,1% of patients have thus recovered from the virus since the outbreak in 2020 whilst over 4 350 deaths have been reported in the province. 

The province now has a total of over 4 900 active cases.

OFM News