Covid-19 Is Turning South African Hospitals Into ‘Obsessive Infection Control Bubbles’

Private hospitals in South Africa have tightened their Covid-19 protocols, becoming an “obsessive infection control bubble” environment intended to keep them safer from Covid-19 than virtually anywhere else, according to an article on the IOL website.

Private hospitals routinely screen staff, visitors and patients and masks remain obligatory, as does hand sanitizing. All hospitals follow the National Department of Health and National Institute of Communicable Diseases guidelines as a minimum departure point, and adhere to Department of Labour regulations for staff safety.

Where necessary, hospitals triage so arrivals are diverted into categories that separate positive patients from Persons Under Investigation, who are in turn separated from Covid-19 negative patients.

At all times the three groups are kept strictly apart, with patients tended to by separate groups of dedicated healthcare staff wearing the appropriate level of personal protective equipment. There is no contact between members of the three groups and no contact between the health-care workers attending to individuals in each of the three groups.

Hospitals around the world have increased their cleaning protocols. For instance, a three-month initiative in New York  increased the percentage of high-touch surfaces thoroughly cleaned throughout the day and at discharge in affected  longterm care facilities, according to an article on the Healio website.

Participating facilities In Brooklyn and Queens, New York, were expected to fill out a questionnaire on current cleaning and disinfection practices, attend an in-person training session, participate in three follow-up conference calls and conduct two assessments of thoroughness of cleaning with a fluorescent marking system.

The percentage of facilities thoroughly cleaned during daily cleaning increased from 52 percent to 68 percent. 

For discharge cleaning, the researchers observed a 26 percent relative increase.

Read the full IOL article.