Mayor details containment and mitigation measures to decrease spread of Covid-19 in Ekurhuleni

The executive mayor of Ekurhuleni, Mzwandile Masina, has outlined a list of containment and mitigation measures to contain the spread of the Covid-19 virus.

The announcement comes on the back of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s declaration of a national state of disaster on Sunday, March 15.

Following extensive consultation with the metro’s senior managers and in line with the best practices outlined by the National Department of Health and the World Health Organisation, the City of Ekurhuleni has decided to implement the following measures:

• Covid-19 joint operations centre:

The metro has activated a joint operations centre (JOC) to coordinate the metro’s response to the Covid-19 outbreak.

The JOC is composed of senior officials from all the metro’s departments and will be convened every Tuesday and Thursday.

The JOC will provide the office of the executive mayor with daily situational reports on developments relating to the Covid-19 outbreak.

The JOC will meet with various city stakeholders, (Acsa, Eskom, Erwat, faith-based organisations, traditional leaders, taxi associations, IziNduna at the hostels and various chambers and business forums, to name a few) regularly to receive input and provide updates on developments surrounding the outbreak.

• Workplace management:

The metro believes the health and safety of its employees remains a top priority.

To this effect it is rolling out the following measures:

• The metro will be allocating hand-sanitising stations at all entrances of government buildings and will be enforcing hygiene protocols to all individuals entering and exiting the buildings.

• The metro will be introducing scheduled sanitation of commonly used objects across the metro. This includes telephones, door handles, taps and desks, among others.

• The metro is investigating the introduction of staggered reporting times across the depots in order to minimise the number of people gathered at these venues.

• The metro is setting up a dedicated hotline for employees who have any questions regarding Covid-19 and possible symptoms.

• The metro is considering the introduction of a work-from-home protocol for high-risk staff members and will make an announcement to this effect soon.

• The human resources department will publish leave management guidelines for the current national state of disaster.

• A moratorium on all official staff travel, domestic and international, has been enforced until further notice.

• Social distancing:

The metro recognises that, globally, social distancing has emerged as one of the most effective methods of slowing down the Covid-19 pandemic.

With this in mind, the metro has decided to enforce the closure of the following government-owned facilities:

• Community halls

• Civic centres

• Stadiums and sports fields

• Lakes

• Public swimming pools

• Innovation and business labs

• Nature reserves

These facilities will be closed until further notice.

The metro will communicate any changes to the status of these facilities when the need arises.

All prior bookings and events that were scheduled to take place at these venues have been cancelled until further notice.

All upcoming metro events have been postponed until further notice.

The metro is investigating an innovative solution to conduct public participation through digital platforms, to avoid public gatherings.

 

ALSO READ:

Rest-a-While take steps to protect the elderly

Netcare warns public to be vigilant as would-be criminals take advantage of Covid-19

 

Public cemeteries will remain open throughout the state of disaster.

Families are advised to keep funeral attendance to under 100 people and exercise punctuality during their service, to avoid contact with other funeral parties.

Public libraries will not be allowed to host more than 100 people at a time.

All visitors to the metro’s libraries will be required to be seated a minimum of 1.5m apart.

The metro is considering shortening the operating hours of libraries.

Restaurants and taverns are advised not to exceed the limit of 100 patrons within their facility.

The metro also calls upon these establishments to introduce strict hygiene protocols for their staff and customers.

The metro urges all shopping centres and malls to monitor the number of customers entering their facilities and to encourage retailers to introduce measures to mitigate panic buying by customers.

• Communications and public education:

To empower the residents of Ekurhuleni with knowledge surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic is an effective method of allaying fears and reducing the harmful impact of misinformation.

The metro will introduce the following measures:

• The metro will be rolling out a mass public awareness campaign regarding the Covid-19 outbreak.

• Intensive education workshops will be provided to high-risk individuals in the metro by health and safety officials.

• Daily situation updates will be sent to metro residents via SMS and digital media platforms.

• An internal communications campaign will be rolled out to educate metro employees about Covid-19 and provide regular updates of decisions taken by the metro which may affect them.

• Safety and security:

The metro is cognisant that criminal elements will see the Covid-19 outbreak as an opportunity to capitalise on the fear and anxiety of citizens.

It will be adopting a proactive approach to this and will be enforcing the following measures:

• Increased visible policing will be implemented throughout the metro.

• Metro personnel will be assigned to monitor and fact-check fake news containing information regarding the metro. Misinformation alerts will be communicated to the public through the metro’s digital media platforms.

• A zero-tolerance approach will be taken against public disobedience and violent acts of xenophobia.

• Health facilities:

In order to minimise the potential strain the Covid-19 pandemic might exert on public hospitals, the metro will be capacitating local clinics with the following interventions:

• Sanitisation stations are currently set up at the entrance of all the metro’s clinics.

• All clinics will allocate isolation rooms for patients who display symptoms of the Covid-19 virus, where they will be tested and quarantined before being sent to a hospital.

• Further training of clinical staff will continue in order to ensure they are suitably prepared to deal with potential Covid-19 cases.

• Ports of entry:

The City of Ekurhuleni is home to the continent’s busiest airport, OR Tambo International.

This means the metro must take an active interest in the screening, tracing and reporting of contact individuals at this port to safeguard the wellness of residents.

To this effect the metro has introduced the following measures:

• The metro has deployed health and safety officials to OR Tambo International Airport and Rand Airport to assess the effectiveness of the screening of entrants into the metro and monitor the enforcement of hygiene protocols throughout the facilities.

• Additional metro health and safety officers will be stationed at both airports to support Covid-19 containment measures.

• Account payments:

The metro encourages account holders to utilise the Siyakhokha online system.

Siyakhokha offers residents and businesses the convenience of online services while promoting social distancing.

The Siyakhokha portal allows account holders to conduct the following services:

• Link your municipal accounts.

• Add your banking details.

• View your municipal statements.

• Make payment for your municipal account (once-off payment/recurring debit order/master pass).

• View payment history/status.

• View consumption (water/electricity).

• Log complaints/compliments.

The metro is aware that the following measures will inconvenience a large number of its residents.

The drastic measures being undertaken by the metro are in the interest of protecting Ekurhuleni’s citizens and drastically slowing down the spread of the virus.

“As we continue to learn more about Covid-19, we are asking the citizens of the City of Ekurhuleni to come together and play their part in curbing this pandemic.

“Now is not the time to panic, but we must rather empower ourselves with knowledge and follow best practices for reducing the spread of the virus.

“The City will continue to do everything within our power to keep you safe,” said Masina.

 

* Notice: Coronavirus reporting at Caxton Local Media aims to combat fake news

Dear reader,