Staff Reporter
Nine members of the Divine Restoration Ministries in Bloemfontein have shown COVID-19 symptoms, Free State Health MEC Montsheng Tsiu has revealed.
She said her department’s tracing team screened 62 people from the church on Saturday morning and 53 were clear while nine required further testing.
The members of the church, situated about 10km northeast of the city along Raymond Mahlaba Street, are believed to have contracted COVID-19 from five overseas visitors who have since tested positive for the coronavirus which causes flu-like symptoms.
The five attended a conference at the church — founded by Prophet Elisée Yao — from March 9 to 11.
The provincial health department is calling on the church members who attended the conference to come forward for free screening and testing.
About 300 people are believed to have attended the event.
“Our mobile laboratory . . . is already there to take swabs from the nine people,” Tsiu told journalists when she unveiled two mobile COVID-19 screening buses at the Universitas Academic Hospital in Bloemfontein a few hours after the screening exercise.
The two mobile screening buses, supplied by the National Health Laboratory Services, arrived from Gauteng on Friday night.
One of the buses was handed over to Pelonomi Hospital while the other one was given to Universitas Hospital.
They are expected to bolster the province’s capacity to screen selected cases suspected of exposure to COVID-19.
Free State health authorities on Friday launched a massive exercise to trace members of the Divine Restoration Ministries amid fears they could have contracted the coronavirus from the visitors who have since been quarantined at a bed-and-breakfast establishment in the city’s northern suburbs. Management and staff at the facility have also been quarantined.
Two of the visitors came from Texas, USA, two from Israel and one from France.
Meanwhile, the two learners at Brandwag Primary School whose mother tested positive to COVID-19 have tested negative.
“Their results came in last night (Friday) and they are cleared. They do not have the coronavirus,” said a relieved Tsiu.
Parents with children in Grades 1-3 were asked to bring them for screening and possible testing on Friday morning.
The department screened a total 1 079 parents and learners.
Asked by the SABC if the province has enough beds to accommodate patients who may need to be admitted, the MEC said district hospitals have been asked to reserve space for possible COVID-19 admissions.
“All the district hospitals in the province have been requested to put aside five beds for us to isolate people. Those beds are in our institutions. So, they are ready. We are still talking to private facilities to assist us with more beds,” Tsiu said.
The isolation unit at Pelonomi Hospital, which has been designated as the main isolation centre in the province, has 38 beds.
South Africa’s COVID-19 toll now stands at 240, while the Free State still has seven positive cases.