This morning health workers are in Bethal in Sectors 3/5/6 conducting screening for COVID-19. The health workers are easily identifiable. You can identify them by their jackets, ID badges, gloves and masks.
They will screen you outside your gate or your house to ensure that you do not have COVID-19. The health worker will ask if you:
1. have travelled to a high risk country in the last 14 days
2. have had contact with anyone with confirmed COVID-19 in the last 14 days
3. have symptoms such as fever, cough and difficulty in breathing
You must be honest when you answer the questions to make sure you get the right help.
Should they suspect that you might have symptoms, you must self-quarantine. This means that you should stay at home for 14 days and monitor yourself for symptoms such as a dry cough, fever and difficulty breathing. Stay away from older people and people with a compromised immune system or underlying condition.
If the health worker think that you may have COVID-19 they will refer you to a health facility to be tested.
What happens if you have not travelled, have not been in contact with anyone with COVID-19 and do not have symptoms?
You will be allowed to go on home and must keep on doing things to protect yourself:
- wash your hands often with soap and water for 20 seconds, or use alcohol-based hand sanitiser cover your nose and mouth with a disposable tissue or flexed elbow when you cough or sneeze
- do not touch your eyes, nose or mouth
- avoid close contact (1 meter) with people who are unwell
- stay at home and self-isolate from others in the household if you feel unwell
There is a limited number of test kits in South Africa. To decide who should be tested, health workers will use a formula by looking at how serious your symptoms are and what high risk factors you have.
