984 Gauteng pupils test positive for Covid-19 after matric rage party
The department of health says most of the pupils who tested positive were from Tshwane and Johannesburg.
Gauteng department of health has announced that 984 of 1 322 pupils who attended matric rage events in Ballito, KwaZulu-Natal, have tested positive for Covid-19.
The department’s spokesperson Kwara Kekana said on Saturday, 1 050 pupils underwent testing thus far, out of the 1 322 attendees.
Most of those who tested positive were from Tshwane and Johannesburg, she said.
Last week, the department said that it was undertaking contact tracing of 1 322 attendees of the matric rage event, which the national department reported as a Covid-19 ‘’super-spreader’’.
Kekana said the department made significant progress in tracing the majority of Gauteng learners who took part in the recent rage matric event.
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“… 984 tested positive and these students had 340 contacts of which 32 tested positive.
“The department continues to plead with learners and their parents to co-operate with healthcare workers who are doing contact tracing as this is an important process aimed at stopping the spread of the coronavirus.”
She said 99 of the learners 99 were “unco-operative, while the rest of the learners (173) either had supplied wrong contacts or were on voicemail”.
“We call on those who went to the rage event to quarantine themselves for 14 days and to go for testing as a matter of urgency. Those that test positive will need to isolate for a mandatory 10 days.”
Kekana urged family contacts of those who tested positive to go for testing and into quarantine.
“Last week, an increase in the number of positive cases was noted, with young people aged 11-20 constituting a large percentage of new cases.’’
She appealed to the public to protect themselves and others by avoiding closed spaces, crowded places and close-contact places.
The department also published the latest Covid-19 test results after several weeks of data fact-checking.
The total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in Gauteng as of 11 December, was at 242 902 with 230 121 recoveries and 5 097 deaths.
Of this total, Tshwane accounted for 55 910 cases, 1 217 deaths and 52 588 recoveries.
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