Limpopo aims to screen 1.4 million households by Friday

Limpopo Premier Stanley Chupu Mathabatha has urged residents of the province to not visit centres for Covid-19 testing, but wait for the volunteers to visit them at home.

During a feedback session of the provincial command council on Friday, the premier stated that the expected wrapping-up period of the screening was envisioned for 24 April, by which time they expected that 1.4 million households would have been screened, reports Review Online.

This covers approximately 80% of Limpopo’s population, at 5.2 million people. He said the council had been updated on the Covid-19 infection rate, but that private cases had not yet been registered in the national database at the time.

As of Sunday 19 April, South Africa has confirmed 3,158 Covid-19 cases

The total number of tests conducted to date stands at 114,711.

The provincial breakdown was given as 1,148 cases in Gauteng, 868 in the Western Cape, 617 in KwaZulu-Natal, 293 in the Eastern Cape, 100 in the Free State, 27 in Limpopo, 25 in North West, 23 in Mpumalanga, 16 in the Northern Cape, and 42 unallocated.

He said there had been another two Covid-19 related deaths.

The premier said he was excited to report that 10,000 volunteers have been deployed throughout the province for the purposes of screening people at home.

“An average of 100,000 people was screened on the first day. Of this number, 110 were sent for actual testing,” he said.

The province also launched a five-digit Covid-19 call-back number whereby people who suspect they might need testing urgently can dial 30775 free of charge between 8am and 4.30pm every day. A total of 127 facilities have been identified as possible locations for quarantine purposes in the event of a Covid-19 breakout.

Since the 27 March 2020, the province has managed:

• 818 roadblocks
• 95,713 vehicles were stopped
• 8,037 liquor premises were visited
• 24,688 blue light patrols by SAPS
• 29,425 spaza shops visited
• 20,085 taxi ranks visited
• 7,088 arrests have been made involving those who transgressed lockdown regulations

In other news, the premier said the province had seen a decline in crime since the declaration of the lockdown.