Labour centre closed after employee tests positive for Covid-19
The employee did not interact with the public.
A labour centre, where one of the employees of the Department of Employment and Labour tested positive for Covid-19, has been closed.
This has been done to allow for all the workers who may have been in contact with the affected employee to be tested, monitored and for the offices to be deep cleaned and disinfected.
The employee did not interact with the members of the public.
According to the Director General of the Department, Thobile Lamati, the employee who works at the Compensation Fund in Pretoria was caught up in the lockdown period while visiting family in Cape Town. As a result, she was placed at the Bellville Labour Centre to enable her to continue working.
“As we have indicated before, while labour centres have been closed to the general public, our officials have continued working in the background, capturing information and thus ensuring there is no major disruption of services for our clients. It follows then that the employee did not have any interaction with the public.
However, she did interact with 36 other staff members who were working at the labour centre, working closely with only 20 of them. We have referred all staff who worked there for testing,” Lamati said.
The employee is said to have first reported sick on 28 April. When limited travel was allowed as a result of the lowering of the Alert Level to 4, she travelled back to Gauteng on 1 May. She displayed flu symptoms on 3 May and took flu medication, but her symptoms worsened.
“With all the given circumstances, the department has responded in the way that is expected, which is to follow the laid down protocols. Although the Occupational Health and Safety Act requires employers to review and update risk assessments on a regular basis, the new hazard posed by Covid-19 is clearly identifiable and the basic measures to eliminate or minimise the risk are now well known,” Lamati said.
The case has been reported to the Centre for Communicable Disease, both in Gauteng and Cape Town, and the family has been kept informed of the developments.
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