The isolation of patients who test positive for Covid-19 is done on a case by case basis to determine where the individual would be monitored from, a senior Bulawayo City Council (BCC) health official has said.
Zimbabwe currently stands at 1064 positive cases of Covid-19, out of a total of 93,248 tests carried out, 395 recoveries and 20 deaths.
Bulawayo has 188 positive cases, 88 recoveries and seven deaths.
People who tested positive are in isolation at either homes or isolation centres such as Elangeni depending on assessments by health officials.
“Isolation is done on an individual basis,” said BCC Director of Health Services, Dr Edwin Sibanda.
“We never isolate like we say from example you are from CITE and you test positive and then say, where do you live, without asking further questions and say go to Elangeni. We isolate on a case by case basis.”
He further explained: “We look at the place where you stay; we talk to you; we hear and assess if you really understand the meaning of isolation. If we think that you can isolate at home, you stay alone and the house is big and everything is ok, you won’t infect anyone, we leave you home with all the instructions. If we think that you cannot isolate at home, we move you to Elangeni.”
Dr Sibanda said some health institutions were in the process of establishing isolation centres for their health staffers who test positive.
“United Bulawayo Hospitals (UBH) was trying to have their isolation of health staff at their own institution,” said Dr Sibanda.
“They are making that arrangement. I have to confirm when it is going to start working and if it starts working how many can it take.”
