Vhakololo Trading Enterprise donates PPE worth R1.2 Million to fight COVID-19

By: Emmaculate Cindi

The call to fight COVID-19 as all South Africans did not fall on death ears. Dr Phophi Ramathuba, the MEC for Health in Limpopo, received a sponsorship of Personal Protective Equipment’s (PPE) worth R1.2 million from a local business on behalf of Premier Chupu Stanley Mathabatha.

The Vhakololo Trading Enterprise represented by Ms Gumani Madzibane handed over a consignment of medical equipment to the provincial government to help curb the spread of the Covid 19 virus. The province just like the entire country has experienced a shortage of PPE which are crucial to front liners.

The donation included surgical masks, instant hand sanitisers, gloves and respirator masks (N95). The N95 masks will only be utilised in highly infectious areas.

From Tuesday 14 April 2020, the Premier will launch a massive screening and testing programme.  The donation came at a crucial time when 310 professional nurses and 10 000 experienced  HIV/AIDS, STI , TB (HAST) teams  will be going door to door for screening and testing to tackle the virus across the province.

“The (HAST) cadres are known to their communities. They have been tracing defaulted TB and HIV patients, they are no strangers to communities from which they operate” said Ramathuba

Since the President pronounced the plan for massive screening and testing, there has been a general fear by citizens that criminals will use the opportunity to further their criminal activities during door to door screening. This will not be the case in the province as the 10 000 identified front liners are known to their communities.

The province will use their own case definition to test suspected patients with COVID-19 virus. Initially the definition case for testing included travelling outside the country and being in contact with those that have travelled.

The province will now use anyone who has been in contact or has been out of a specific area as a measure to test. The focus will be more in the rural areas where people cannot afford private health care. There is a concern that some city dwellers went to their homes in respective villages before the lockdown came into effect. Some could have inadvertently carried the virus to those places. The envisage rollout for testing, will flush out such cases and assist in flattening the infection curve in the country.