Reversal of New Covid19 Protocols Has a Negative Impact on Healthcare Workers In Rural Areas, Says Rudasa

• The Department of Health has made a decision to withdraw a circular that put an end to Covid19 contact tracing, amongst other protocols
• The Rural Doctors Association of Southern Africa says that decision by the department was disheartening and failed to take in a lot of considerations
• The department had not indicated why it retracted the circular, however, it did state that a new circular will be published

The Department of Health's decision to backtrack on a published circular that stated Covid19 contact tracing, as well as self-isolation for asymptomatic people, would be scrapped has not been well received by some organisations.

The Rural Doctors Association of Southern Africa (Rudasa) is one of those organisations that have expressed deep disappointment in the department.

Rudsa says the department's decision to reimplement the old protocols will have a negative impact on rural areas and will in turn put pressure on health care services in the rural areas, according to News24.

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While Rudasa says it understands that the protocols were not perfect, they were, however, based on science.

The organisation added the reversal by the department failed to recognise that the majority of healthcare workers have already been vaccinated or the fact a large portion of the South African population have Covid immunity.

The association says between 80 - 90% of the population have Covid immunity in the country.

Contact tracing and self-isolation protocols result in understaffing

The organisation stated that making individuals quarantine after being in contact with someone who has Covid19 or after testing positive for Covid19 with little to no symptoms leads to a shortage of employees, especially in the struggling healthcare sector.

This was a huge issue, particularly during the fourth wave says Rudasa.

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According to eNCA, a new circular will be published at a later stage with revised protocols.

New self isolation rules for SA dropped

Briefly News previously reported that on 23 December the Department of Health stated that the practice of contact tracing will end and that people who have asymptomatic cases of Covid-19 do not have to self-isolate.

However, yesterday (28 December) the department released a retraction of their previous statement, saying that they are waiting to receive more input from different health officials and global organisations before deciding if they will implement the previously released measures.

Therefore the protocols and rules that were in place before 23 December are still in effect. This means that people who test positive for Covid-19 need to self-isolate and inform people they have recently been in contact with to get tested.

Source: Briefly News