Durban - As a precaution to coronavirus, some hospitals have reduced visiting hours and have confined visitors for patients to one each at a time.
The Ahmed Al-Kadi Private Hospital in Durban said that due to the outbreak they had implemented additional safety measures. The hospital posted a notice on their Facebook page which said that apart from restricting their visiting hours to twice a day, patients were restricted to one visitor.
The hospital also recommended that children and the elderly do not visit the hospital for their own protection. They have also advised that if anyone has traveled outside of South Africa in the last 21 days, they should refrain from visiting any patients at the hospital.
The Netcare Hospital group said that they had also restricted visiting times and the number of visitors allowed to visit a patient at a time.
"Management at the facilities where visiting applies will provide further information to patients and visitors," said Netcare group executive Richard Friedland.
"We acknowledge that maintaining contact whilst in hospital is important and beneficial to both our patients and their loved ones but implementing restrictions in this regard will be for the greater good," said Friedland.
The group said that added measures included ensuring every person who entered their facility cleaned their hands and would be verbally screened for Covid-19 risk at the main points of entry.
She said their staff would be screened on a daily basis.
Life Healthcare said in preparation for the anticipated increase in COVID-19 patients in South Africa, they were working closely with the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD).
"We have put a number of safety measures in place to support our standard infection
prevention and risk mitigation protocols. As part of these, hospitals may reduce visiting
hours and numbers of visitors as a general public health strategy to reduce the likelihood
of viral transmission," said Charl van Loggerenberg, Life Healthcare General Manager.
As of Thursday, 17 people have been diagnosed with Covid-19 in South Africa and among them, a 57-year-old man in Gauteng was in a critical condition.
KZN has been the worst hit province so far, with eight confirmed cases, followed by Gauteng with six, and the Western Cape, Free State and Mpumalanga provinces, with one positive infection each.