Awaiting official confirmation of Covid-19 infections in Ndlambe

If you are active on social media you will no doubt have heard of several cases of Covid-19 being discussed in the Ndlambe area.

Reports include a woman who was transferred by Helicopter from Port Alfred Hospital to Livingstone Hospital in Port Elizabeth, a person in Port Alfred in Port Alfred Hospital who was placed in quarantine and another, a taxi driver who tested positive for the virus.

Talk of the Town has contacted the Provincial Health Department, the only source of official confirmations and the government department to which others defer, requesting official notification of these cases. So far, we have not heard back from their spokesperson, Siyanda Manana, regarding the latest cases.

However, Manana did respond to the first case where he wrote; “The Staff is attending to the patient.  There is adequate PPE at the hospital. The patient is isolated. Yes we do know about the patient. The procedure has been followed in that the patient was isolated upon learning that the patient was positive.”

This also leads to the question as to why there has been no official communication from the Ndlambe Municipality regarding these cases. The Ndlambe Joint Operations Committee (JOC) meets on Monday April 27 where plans for moving to Level-4 lockdown regulations, cases of positive infections and policing/safety, among other issues will no doubt be discussed.

Talk of the Town is awaiting a response from Nlambe mayor and JOC chairperson, Khuluwa Ncamiso as to whether Talk of the Town will be invited in order to report back to the residents the fact about the contagion. As soon as we have official confirmation we will report this on our web page, on our Facebook page and group and on Twitter.

As an essential service to the community Talk of the Town will only publish facts from official sources regarding the Covid-19 pandemic.