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World
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THURSDAY, APRIL 9, 2020
Africa
Middle East
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Sixty-six
people at a single hospital in South
Africa have tested positive for the
coronavirus in the past few days, the
Health Minister said on Tuesday, as
anxiety rose among health workers
over the shortage of protective gear.
At least 48 of the people who
tested positive at St Augustine’s
Hospital in the city of Durban are
staff, Zweli Mkhize said. He said
authorities are looking into closing
parts of the facility.
The minister also sought to ease
the fears of health workers after one
union went to court last week press-
ing the government for more pro-
tective gear. South Africa’s supplies
should last up to eight weeks, he said,
adding that no one will be forced to
work where they feel unprotected.
St Augustine’s is one of Durban’s
largest private hospitals, said Denis
Chopera, a virologist working in
the city.
“This deinitely shows the prob-
lem of protecting our health care
workers,” he said. “These health
care workers are going to go home
and infect their families.
“Many will return home to town-
ships and informal settlements
that are crowded where the virus
could spread. There needs to be
regular, frequent testing of work-
ers. This is a big challenge for
South Africa.”
“This is an untenable situation.
Front-line medical staff must be
protected at all times,” the chair
of the South African Medical As-
sociation Angelique Coetzee, said
last week.
South Africa, the most devel-
oped country in Africa, has the
most conirmed virus cases on the
continent with more than 1,700.
The Health Minister said fewer than
100 people across the country are
currently hospitalised.
66 at South African hospital have coronavirus,
mostly staff
Masked medical staff walk outside the St Augustines Hospital in Durban, South Africa. PHOTO: AP
JOHANNESBURG (AFP) - South
African President Cyril Ramapho-
sa yesterday placed on special
leave a minister seen lunching at
a friend’s house in violation of the
coronavirus lockdown.
Ramaphosa has ordered a
three-week national lockdown to
try to brake the virus, which has
infected 1,749 people, killing 13 of
them, according to an oficial tally.
But a picture posted on
Instagram last Sunday showed
Communications and Digital
Technologies Minister Stella
Ndabeni-Abrahams having lunch
with ive other people at the
home of a former deputy minister
earlier that day.
“President Ramaphosa has
placed the Minister on special
leave for two months,” the presi-
dency said in a statement.
Ramaphosa has “accepted the
minister’s apology for the viola-
tion but was unmoved by mitigat-
ing factors she tendered,” it said.
“The nation-wide lockdown
calls for absolute compliance
on the part of all South Afri-
cans,” Ramaphosa was quoted
as saying.
“None of us - not least a mem-
ber of the national executive -
should undermine our national
effort to save lives in this very se-
rious situation,” said Ramaphosa.
“No-one is above the law.”
Last month, just two days into
the lockdown, Social Develop-
ment Minister Lindiwe Zulu was
forced to issue an apology after
she posted a video on her Insta-
gram account, joking about how
she was struggling to stay home.
S Africa’s minister who flouted
lockdown rules sent on leave
BERLIN (AP) — The Qatari gov-
ernment said on Tuesday it has
implemented widespread mea-
sures to protect immigrant work-
ers from the coronavirus, after a
German documentary highlight-
ed that ongoing construction of
World Cup infrastructure raised
the risk of infections.
The government said in a state-
ment to The Associated Press that
it is providing free healthcare and
a salary-guarantee for those work-
ers affected by the virus, and is
bringing a daily shipment of food
and protective equipment into the
industrial area where immigrant
labourers reside.
The response came after a Ger-
man documentary reported on se-
vere food shortages for the workers
and an increased risk of infection
due to cramped conditions inside
a quarantined part of the Industrial
Area district outside Doha.
Retail shops and bank branch-
es in shopping malls are closed
as Qatar bids to contain the virus.
The country has reported over
1,800 conirmed cases of COVID-
19 with some 130 recoveries and
four deaths.
But work on construction sites
continues as Qatar gets ready to
host the World Cup in 2022. Migrant
workers are driving the effort.
Qatar relies on foreign labourers
to build its mega projects and high-
ways. They take the jobs to earn in-
comes they never could back home,
thoughabuseandmaltreatment have
been reported for years. Many live in
cramped, dormitory-style housing.
The Qatari government told the
AP on Tuesday that, “1,000 trucks
loaded with goods enter the Indus-
trial Area daily” and that food, water,
masks, gloves and hand sanitisers
are being delivered to workers.
An outbreak of COVID£19 infec-
tions led the state to close off the
zone between Street No 1 and Street
No 32 of the Industrial Area in a bid
to contain the virus last month.
Qatar says it’s working to protect
labourers from coronavirus