Prompt test results needed in Gauteng

8 May 20202

I am alarmed by delays in providing test results in Gauteng which means that many COVID-19 infection figures could be a week old and infected people could be infecting others instead of being quarantined.

A case in point is the staff member of the Diepsloot South clinic who tested positive earlier this week after doing many community screening visits.

Private laboratories generally provide results within 24 hours, but there seems to be a capacity problem with the public tests as I know of cases where the result took as long as seven days.

Testing is of most value with prompt results otherwise we will constantly be playing catch-up with contact tracing and confining the local “bush fires” as they arise.

The Gauteng Health Department needs to provide daily testing figures and also the average turn-around time for results.

I fear that the COVID-19 infection figures in Gauteng are understated because of testing backlogs. If public testing cannot cope then private tests should be commissioned by the provincial government as is being done in the Western Cape.

The benefits of the lockdown in “flattening the curve” of infections may be lost if test results are not provided speedily.

Issued by Jack Bloom, DA Gauteng Shadow Health MEC, 8 May 2020