This week Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize announced details of a "COVID Home Visits Programme" that will include "mass community-based screening, referral for clinic testing, quarantine of suspected cases and appropriate care for COVID-19 patients".
This follows President Cyril Ramaphosa's announcement that 10 000 'volunteers' will be deployed in communities for tracing, screening and testing. On Thursday Mkhize clarified that community healthcare workers (CHWs) will be deployed "to the field for door-to-door household screening". "Each province has been requested to start working on this strategy," he said, "by deploying provincial community health care workers with appropriate Personal Protective Equipment to undertake a house-to-house programme of 'no-touch' screening for COVID-19 symptoms and to refer symptomatic people to clinics for testing."
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