Two in isolation, one in hospital as TMPD suffers Covid-19 blow
“The 51-year-old senior superintendent and a 37-year-old female constable tested positive on 17 June at Number 1 Madiba Street."
Two buildings, one in the CBD and the other in the north of Pretoria, were closed recently after three Tshwane metro police officers tested positive for Covid-19.
Metro police spokesperson Senior Superintendent Isaac Mahamba said two female officers and one senior male officer tested positive for Covid-19.
“The 51-year-old senior superintendent and a 37-year-old female constable tested positive on 17 June at Number 1 Madiba Street.
“The building was closed for two days to allow for disinfection before staff returned to work.”
He said the other 31-year-old female constable, stationed at the Mercedes Benz Building in Francis Baard Street, tested positive on Monday.
“The constable went to hospital for a different medical consultation when it was discovered that she had tested positive for the virus,” said Mahamba.
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He said the constable has since been admitted to hospital, while the other two officers were in isolation for 14 days.
Mahamba said another female staff member, working at the admin office in Akasia, also tested positive for Covid-19 last week.
“She has since been in 14 days isolation and the building was also disinfected.”
He said the Mercedes Benz and Akasia Winternest transgression unit buildings would be temporarily closed for 48 hours, with effect from Tuesday.
“The two buildings will be reopened on 26 June.”
He said the interior of the buildings will be disinfected during the closure period. All contacts will be traced and managed according to health department protocols.”
This comes after Tshwane metro held an outreach programme at the Sunnypark mall in Sunnyside last week Friday to educate the public about Covid-19.
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The metro has implemented Covid-19 screening and testing outreach programmes aimed at reaching a high number of people in all its seven regions.
“Part of the programme is to provide awareness on the spread of Covid-19 and safety measures one can follow to avoid being infected.”
The metro said its health department, together with an interdepartmental team, conducted screening, testing and education campaigns at taxi ranks, shopping centres and in areas identified as virus hotspots.
Health workers at the outreach only tested people based on symptoms of Covid-19 and clinical evaluations.
The Tshwane metro has been on a drive to flatten the curve of the pandemic in the Pretoria CBD, Atteridgeville and Pretoria West.
Tshwane metro spokesperson Selby Bokaba said the metro was concerned over a recent spike of Covid-19 cases in these areas.
He said the metro was certain the campaign would “drastically arrest the rapid spread of the virus”.
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He also said the metro was also worried over the number of its own buildings shutting their doors due to Covid-19.
“Naturally, it’s a cause for concern, especially, because we had put stringent measures in place aimed at preventing the spread of the virus.
“Most of the employees that have tested positive were asymptomatic. Their screening records were normal,” said Bokaba.
He said the metro was drafting guidelines to do random testing of employees.
“The downside to closing buildings is that certain services are interrupted.”
Since level 3 lockdown, the metro has seen its Tshwane House headquarters, FF Ribeiro clinic (situated at Sammy Marks Square complex in the CBD), Tshwane’s mini munitoria offices in Mamelodi and the Silverton fire station temporarily close after metro employees tested positive.
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