Limpopo to quarantine mine workers who hail from Covid-19 epicentres
It is, however, significant that 17 of the 19 Covid-19 positive mine workers were from Limpopo, which suggests that the prevalence of the virus among local communities was far higher than initial estimates.
LIMPOPO – An urgent high-level meeting was convened in Bela-Bela yesterday, attended by the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Gwede Mantashe, Limpopo Government, led by Premier Chupu Mathabatha, and Impala Platinum Group CEO, Nico Muller after 19 mine workers at the Marula Mine tested positive for Covid-19.
Limpopo Government and mining companies could seemingly earlier not agree on the way forward, after the workers, of which two were from the Eastern Cape, tested positive for the virus. This, after the Health MEC, Phophi Ramathuba expressed that government and the mining companies were “failing to find each other” on the issue.
The mine, situated in the Sekhukhune region, has since closed as the infections are seen as a cluster outbreak. A total of 2 700 workers, all from Limpopo, reported for duty between 15 and 17 April and were tested for Covid-19. All were allowed to go underground.
The infected workers were part of 130 employees who reported for duty on 4 May and who were unable to explain their whereabouts after they returned to work. They were subsequently tested.
The Health MEC said these workers, who are all asymptomatic, were now being housed at a facility under the care of government health officials. She insisted, however, that forceful quarantine was the only way to curb the spread of Covid-19. “The mines say they will quarantine those who test positive after showing symptoms. But how many will test positive? We are saying from our side that everyone must be quarantined because you don’t know who is infected or not,” Ramathuba said.
During yesterday’s meeting, Mantashe elaborated on the way forward, saying there are rules and prescripts to be followed as issued by his department, and that the mines have done well in this regard, except on the part of testing, which he said was “not visible”.
Implats had identified 19 positive Covid-19 cases during the week, all of them asymptomatic. Of these cases, 14 were identified as a result of proactive testing of employees returning to work. None of these employees had started work at the mine. Of the remaining five, one case was identified as a primary contact and the remaining four were identified through contact tracing. Two of the active cases had recently returned from the Eastern Cape.
Significantly, 17 of the confirmed cases were residents of Limpopo, suggesting the prevalence of Covid-19 among local communities was far higher than the company’s initial estimates had indicated, Implats said. The suspension of operations at the mine was a voluntary precautionary step and sanitisation and deep-cleaning has to be done to ensure the safety of all mine workers, and screening and testing must be done on a continuous basis.
The premier said it was inevitable that the province would quarantine all workers who hailed from Covid-19 epicentres such as Gauteng, and the Western and Eastern Cape need to be quarantined, to which the mining houses agreed.
The number of Covid-19 infections in the province was expected to rise as more people returned to work at the province’s mines. By Sunday, Limpopo had recorded 77 positive cases of Covid-19.
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