EFF calls government to provide health workers with Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and clothing

29 March 2020

The EFF has received a number of complaints from healthcare professionals across the country, who are in the frontline of the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, regarding lack of personal protective equipments(PPE's) and clothing in public hospitals and clinics.

We are concerned that this chronic shortage of personal protective equipment and clothing is one of the most urgent threats and the most pressing challenge to the collective's ability to fight and defeat the COVID-19 pandemic in our country. If we are to observe the global trend of the COVID-19 pandemic in those countries battling with the disease, most of their health professionals become victims of this highly contagious disease.

Healthcare workers in the public sector who are consistently faced with the dire shortage of personal protective equipments deserve the same protection as their counterparts in the private sector. In some instances, they are forced to reuse the same N95 mask over and over again. We have also been receiving complaints that some of the clinics, especially in rural areas, lack basic infrastructure such as running water and proper sanitation.

We call on government to immediately provide personal protective equipments (PPE's) and clothing to all healthcare workers who come into contact with patients on a day-to-day basis to avoid putting their health at risk unnecessarily. Personal protective equipment such as N95 mask, as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), and goggles should be compulsory for all health workers who have direct contact with patients daily during this COVID-19 era.

The EFF, further notes reports in the media that some of the the patients who are placed under self quarantine/isolation at home are not complying with government regulations, a behavior that puts majority of South Africans at risk of infection. We therefore reiterate our call to government to make it compulsory for any diagnosed person to be kept at a special state facilities to protect all other citizens from this dangerous and contagious virus.

Issued by Vuyani Pambo, National Spokesperson, EFF, 29 March 2020