Times Of Swaziland: WANTED: COVID-19 POSITIVE PATIENT MISSING

WANTED: COVID-19 POSITIVE PATIENT MISSING
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BY MELISA MSWELI on 12/05/2020 00:18:00


MBABANE – A confirmed COVID-19 positive patient has gone missing and the
Ministry of Health is seeking his whereabouts.
As a result, government analysis of updated cases shows that there is one
patient who is pending registration to care since last Thursday.
The patient is said to be from the Shiselweni Region and was among the 30 cases
confirmed on May 7, 2020.
He first appeared to be pending registration on May 8, 2020 and this status had
not changed in a statement released by Minister of Health Lizzie Nkosi
yesterday.
When questioned about this, Director of Health Services Dr Vusi Magagula said
the patient could not be located as his phone was not available on the local
networks.
Searched
He said they were hoping to get hold of him soon.
“He might be somewhere where there is no network coverage,” he opined.
Magagula said the patient might have damaged his phone but they were hoping to
get hold of him.
However, Minister of Health Nkosi, when interviewed prior to Magagula, said the
patient’s sister pointed him to being on the South African side (Pongola)
where he was said to be working.
He is said to have used an informal crossing to get there, according to the
minister, as per information said to have been sourced from the sister.
The minister stated that attempts were made to track him through Immigration but
he was not found.
When asked if the patient was a contact, the minister said based on him being
asymptomatic, he might have been a contact.
“We will do secondary contact- tracing based on the information we got from
the sister. We will monitor the family as he was in contact with them,” said
Nkosi.
Mingling
When asked about the dangers of having a positive patient supposedly
‘mingling’ with others, Nkosi confirmed that the patient was a danger to the
people he was with as he was not aware of his results.
The minister stated that they were working hard to get assistance from health
workers where the patient was believed to be, to ensure that he was taken in and
put at the right place.
She also stated that they were also frequently checking up with the family as
there were possibilities of him coming back soon.
Nkosi said normally, when people got tested, they were told to isolate until
they received their results.
On a standard basis, results take 24 hours, but depending on the quantities of
tests and batches per day, they might take up to 48 hours, according to the
minister.