2
www.thevillagenews.co.za
15 April 2020
The importance of contact tracing Writer De Waal Steyn With several members of our law enforcement agencies now self-isolating after having been in contact with SAPS Hermanus Station Commander, Col Luthando Nosilela, who contracted COVID-19, many people are asking: how does contact tracing work? According to The Conversation, this form of tracing people who have been in contact with someone who is infected with a transmittable disease was first used almost a century ago to limit the spread of sexually transmitted infections from and to American troops, and has since been a pillar of communicable disease control in public health. The eradication of smallpox, for example, was achieved not by universal immunisation, but by exhaustive contact tracing, followed by isolation of infected individuals and immunisation of the surrounding community and contacts at risk of contracting smallpox. In short, it means assigning a ‘contact tracer’ to interview each person with a confirmed case of COVID-19. The contact tracer, through swift and painstaking detective work, finds out who else might have already been exposed to the infectious person, and possibly contracted the virus. In South Africa, the Red Cross' George Mamab-
olo is the acting National Programmes Manager in charge of contact tracing. According to him, those who had contact with a COVID-19 patient may not necessarily know that they have been exposed to the disease and, because the symptoms of COVID-19 don’t necessarily manifest immediately, they may continue with their normal lives during that time, potentially infecting others unknowingly. The infected person is interviewed by a contact tracer to establish how many people they may have been in contact with and who those people are. In terms of international regulations, close contacts are those who have had face-toface contact with a confirmed case for a period of more than 15 minutes, or those who have shared an enclosed space with a confirmed case for more than two hours. This does not include people you may have encountered in a shop or passed in the street. According to Mamabolo, the identities of the infected person and the contacts are treated as confidential. The contact tracer will get hold of the contacts through different means, usually by phone. There is no specialised technology used. “The process of tracking must incorporate personal distancing to reduce infection. We call people and send messages via SMS or WhatsApp and follow those messages up with a phone call,”
said Mamabolo. “They are then asked to come to a specified location to get screened. If they display any symptoms during screening, they are tested and told to self-isolate pending the results.” These contacts are then also asked about who they may have had close contact with, and the process is repeated.
The regulations explicitly state that nothing in the regulations entitle the Director-General of the Department of Health, or any other person, to intercept the contents of any electronic communication. The public can rest assured that voice conversations and messages will not be listened to.
To assist in the tracing process the government is setting up a COVID-19 database to track people who have contracted the virus and those they had contact with. To this end the Department of Health now has the power to demand location data from cellphone companies, going back to 5 March.
Minister of Communications, Telecommunications and Postal Services, Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams has assured South Africans that contact tracing in COVID-19 cases will not be used to spy on citizens.
Under the rules, the Director-General of the Department of Health can direct any licensed electronic communications company to provide information on "the location or movements of any person known or reasonably suspected to have contracted COVID-19", as well as "any person known or reasonably suspected to have come into contact, during the period 5 March 2020 to the date on which the national state of disaster has lapsed or has been terminated", with someone thought to be infected. Six weeks after the state of disaster ends, individual data must be destroyed, and the database must be de-identified in order for the information to be "retained and used only for research, study and teaching purposes".
“When we say we are going to use cellphone numbers, it doesn’t mean we are going take anybody’s number. Those that test and are found to be positive… it is those people that the Department of Health will seek permission from the Electronic Communications Network Service (ECNS) licences to access their geolocation," the minister said. In turn, people who have been in contact with a person who has tested positive for COVID-19 will be identified through the process of contact tracing. “We do respect that everyone has the right to privacy, but in a situation like this, our individual rights do not supersede the country’s rights. The most important and critical right is ensuring the safety of South Africans,” she said.
‘We want to come home’ Writer Taylum Meyer
Roughly 3 000 South Africans stranded abroad are desperately trying to make their way back home while most of the world is in lockdown. Many stranded South Africans are running out of money and are now unemployed; they can no longer afford to pay for their accommodation and have nowhere else to go. To make matters worse, those with life-threatening medical conditions are not able to access chronic medication and now face serious health challenges. A group called ‘Home Away from Home’, which was established a few weeks ago by a number of volunteers and officials here and abroad, has been supporting these nationals and assisting with efforts to repatriate them. The group, which is working closely with the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO), was initiated after many of the stranded South Africans took to social media to share the dire circumstances in which they found themselves abroad. In-country WhatsApp groups were created, in an effort to provide support and information to stranded citizens, and to help them register with DIRCO. Psychological counselling WhatsApp groups have also been set up in order to assist those who have been struggling with anxiety and stress during these unprece-
dented times.
One of these groups was created for over 60 citizens stranded in Ghana, which included three people from the Overberg who have chosen to remain anonymous – one from Hermanus, one from Gansbaai and one from Cape Agulhas. The overall sentiment amongst them last week was that they did not feel like valued South African citizens. One member of the group said that “other governments are flying their people home, but ours doesn’t seem to be doing anything for us”. MPP Beverley Schäfer (Deputy Speaker of the Western Cape Provincial Parliament, Head of International Relations for the Western Cape and part of the Home Away from Home team) said that other countries had repatriated their citizens weeks ago, several through arrangements with South African Airways (SAA). However, the South African government has subsequently used return flights from other international airlines in a concerted effort to bring home its citizens. Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Naledi Pandor, recently stated that those in extreme difficulties would be assisted first, and that those who could stay where they were, should do so. As per the new lockdown rules and regulations, commercial SAA flights have been suspended and the stranded South Africans either have to wait indefinitely to be ABOVE: The crew who operated the flight from Heathrow to Cape Town, which brought citizens home to South Africa on Sunday 12 April. PHOTO: Stan Coetzee, South African Airways LEFT: Helen Lombard with a member of the SA Embassy in Ghana who helped them get home. PHOTO: Helen Lombard
repatriated, or they have to charter their own flights. The Ghana group received the good news late last week that a flight returning from Germany to South Africa would be stopping in Ghana to pick them up and take them home on Monday 13 April. The group members had to ensure they were on the DIRCO list for the flight and had to pass screening tests in order to board the plane where their temperatures were taken before taking off. When asked how he was feeling on Friday, the Hermanus resident said it had been a traumatic experience. “It was like being a child waiting for your parents after school and they don't fetch you. After a while you see all the other kids leave and start to wonder if they have forgotten you. It seemed as if South Africans in other countries were getting much better support from their embassies; in our case, we just feel stressed and frustrated and want to come home.” Fortunately, the Ghana group landed safely at OR Tambo Airport on Monday night and are now being quarantined for 14 days in one of two facilities in Johannesburg. The entire process from the airport in Ghana, to their arrival at the facilities in Johannesburg went smoothly and the members are grateful to the embassy in Ghana for their great assistance in the end. Before being allowed to go home to their fam-
ilies, those in quarantine have to test negative for COVID-19. When they are allowed to leave the facilities, it will ultimately be up to them to find their own way home, at their own expense. At the time of going to print, approximately 1 000 South Africans had been successfully repatriated, many through return flights from other countries. Home Away from Home was created to assist all South Africans stuck abroad, but has recently had to close its database to new entries due to the overwhelming number of people who are stranded. It does, however, still encourage people to join the Home Away from Home group on Facebook. DIRCO's database will remain open. “Our aim is to ensure that any South Africans who choose to come back, particularly those whose jobs have been terminated, are allowed to return. We have hundreds of teachers across the globe who have no work. They are in dire straits financially and we must help them get back home,” said Schäfer. “If government does not have the means, then my call is to large multinationals to assist us. Let us not forget that South Africans are united in Ubuntu – compassion for one another! This storm will pass. South Africans are resilient and we will get through this together.”
