EFF statement on decision to quarantine Covid-19 positive cases

12 May 2020

The EFF welcomes the long-overdue declaration by the Minister of Health Dr Zweli Mkhize to quarantine positive cases of COVID-19. This decision comes after useless attempts at encouraging individuals who test positive to self-quarantine, placing the health of the nation at the discretion of individuals. Today, South Africa finds itself with a rate of infections that is spiralling out of control because of a lack of decisiveness.

The EFF has, as a principle, called for healthcare in South Africa to move towards being preventative to ease the burden on the healthcare system and ensure we are not faced with the need to cure people when we can curb the spread of illness and disease through education and state-centric interventions. It was this logic that informed our call for the state to quarantine all those who tested positive for COVID-19, even if they are asymptomatic when South Africa still had 54 cases of positive infections.

Today South Africa sits with Il 350 positive cases of COVID-19 and 206 COVID-19 related deaths. The process of a state-controlled quarantine needs to be implemented immediately across the country. This must be coordinated by all provincial health departments in collaboration with municipalities to identify buildings that can be used as centres for patients who test positive. This is to ensure that hospitals are not overburdened with the responsibility of quarantining.

It is high time that we receive reports of infrastructure and industrial development to combat the spread of this deadly virus. Meaning, we must be updated on the readiness of centres to quarantine positive cases, and we must be updated on the production of testing kits and not screenings. It means we must be updated on the manufacturing and distribution of Personal Protective Equipment's and we must be updated on the effectiveness of economic relief measures to alleviate the effects of the virus on small businesses and people.

We cannot be bombarded with the increase of cases and deaths with seemingly no progress being made after weeks of a national lockdown. Instead of an infantile obsession with reopening the country at the expense of human life, the government must provide a coherent update on its efforts to combat the spread of the virus, not only information on its exponential spread.

Issued by Vuyani Pambo, National Spokesperson, EFF, 12 May 2020