UMZINGWANE community has been left at a serious Covid-19 risk after revelations that the District’s Ward 20 councillor Nqabeni Nkala (52) died of the highly contagious dieseas.

Covid-19 test results released on Tuesday showed that the councillor who died on August 12 while admitted to Esigodini District Hospital had succumbed to the virus.

Health workers at the facility and members of the community who unknowingly came into contact with the councillor or the corpse may have resultantly been exposed to the virus.

Umzingwane District Medical Officer, Dr Cleophas Makonese said the results were delayed due to a huge backlog. He said they were relying on a laboratory at Mpilo Central Hospital for tests.

“A councillor from the district died while admitted to Esigodini District Hospital. At the time he died he was showing symptoms of a Covid-19 patient and we had to test him but his results only came back on Tuesday after he had already been buried. As a district, we don’t have the capacity to test for Covid-19 as our Gene X-pert machine does not have cartridges. As a result, we collect our specimens and send them to a lab at Mpilo Hospital for testing and we wait for the results,” he said.

“However, Mpilo Hospital is also overwhelmed as they also handle specimens from other districts which results in a huge backlog. The results confirmed that the councillor had succumbed to Covid-19. He had been in and out of hospital several times before he died. It remains unclear how the councillor could have contracted the virus.”

Dr Makonese who down played the contamination risks said they had conducted contact tracing for all people whom Nkala had come into contact with, including family members and workmates but they were all asymptomatic. He said all necessary precautionary measures were taken after Nkala’s death and his family was placed under self-isolation until they were cleared.

The medical staff made a follow up on all his contacts for 10 days and they came out in the clear.

Dr Makonese said there were in need of cartridges for Gene X-pert machines in order to increase capacity of testing at the hospital.

Matabeleland South Provincial Medical Director, Dr Rudo Chikodzore said testing remains a challenge throughout the province due to limited supply of cartridges.

She said Beitbridge and Gwanda were the only districts which could conduct tests as they had PCR machines but they were experiencing a shortage of various commodities which were required for testing.

“The entire province is greatly incapacitated when it comes to testing for Covid-19. We haven’t received cartridges for a while now while we are also facing a challenge of other commodities needed for testing,” she said.

Source: State Media