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The number of people confirmed to have the Covid-19 coronavirus in the country has skyrocketed to more than 200 since the virus hit local shores a little more than two weeks ago.
Also raging is the level of anxiety and panic.
Some people have rushed to private practices to test for the deadly virus.
This week Gauteng’s health department strongly discouraged the public from rushing to doctors in private practice and private health laboratories.
There weren’t enough test kits for everyone because of a global shortage, it said.
Some patients said they were getting “confusing” messages about what they should do to prevent infection.
The government is trying fervently to curtail the spread. It is fighting on all fronts to stop the outbreak.
Panicked patients
Emily* (37) from KwaZulu-Natal, who spoke to City Press this week on condition of anonymity, works at a high-end furniture store where tourists regularly browsed and bought.
She said she had been booked off sick for a cold at the start of the month for a few days. But this week her symptoms took a new turn.
“From March 2 to 4 I was booked off sick from work because I had a cold. I visited my GP and she jokingly asked if I had been travelling lately. I laughed it off and got the prescribed flu meds. On March 5, I was back at work and that was when we heard a Hilton man had the virus.
“At about the same time, a woman from the UK came into the shop and bought a few items using a credit card. She had a dry cough and looked a bit under the weather,” Emily said. “This Monday I felt a bit weird ... I put it down to the mounting anxiety about the virus. At work we discussed the woman from the UK and wondered how many international travellers we had served in the past two weeks.
“Later on Monday, my partner and I were unusually unchatty – we could feel our bodies were out of sorts. We dosed ourselves with medicine and went to bed early.”
On Tuesday, Emily said, she and her partner woke up with “serious malaise”, head congestion and exhaustion.
“I messaged my boss and he told me to see my GP to get a test. My GP said they weren’t doing Covid-19 tests but there was a doctor in Umhlanga who was. I called that doctor’s number and it was engaged.
“My boss started freaking out that I didn’t seem interested in going for a test and our HR [human resources] department was pressing me for a sick note. I told them the doctors were refusing to see me, let alone test me.”
On Wednesday Emily’s symptoms worsened. “I felt really miserable ... with a spaced-out fog brain, listlessness, a slight runny nose, out of breath and with a slight tightness in my chest,” she said.
“I called a private lab to see if I could do the test; they said I need a doctor’s note. I can’t get a doctor’s note because I haven’t been able to get through as I assume his practice is ringing off the hook,” she said.
“My mother told me to phone Life Entabeni Hospital’s casualty ward – the hospital is on the list of 13 places where you can get tested in KwaZulu-Natal. But the hospital said that it was not testing and that we must self-isolate and must call thehotline number.”
Emily said she called the National Institute for Communicable Diseases’ Covid-19 hotline number, but could not get through.
The institute added two more hotline numbers this week after receiving more than 300 000 calls – some of which were prank calls – from clinicians and the public seeking advice about Covid-19 testing.
According to the institute’s testing guidelines, only “persons under investigation” should undergo a laboratory diagnostic test, which involves gathering a swab from your nose, mouth or the back of your throat.
- Anyone with an acute respiratory illness, with the sudden onset of either a cough, sore throat, shortness of breath or fever.
- Anyone who has been in close contact of a “confirmed or probable case” within the past 14 days. Anyone who has travelled to areas of high-community transmission or who works in a healthcare facility where Covid-19 cases have been treated.
- Anyone admitted for severe pneumonia.
To date, 4 832 tests have been conducted – 150 positive and 4 682 negative.
Although the test is free in the public sector for those who meet the criteria, the cost of the Covid-19 test in the private sector is between R1 200 and R1 400.
*Not her real name
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Vuyo MkizeHealth journalist | City Press | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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