New phones for tracers, as govt ramps up testing campaign
Samsung and Telkom have donated 1500 mobile phones to assist the government in its campaign to curb the spread of coronavirus in South Africa.
The two companies made the donation to the Department of Health on Thursday.
The phones will be used by more than 10 000 tracers who are tasked with tracing and locating individuals infected by the deadly virus.
Health Minister Zweli Mkhize says while the department appreciates the donation, it’s still in need of more resources in the fight against Covid-19.
“The number of mobile phones is not necessarily enough. We have 1500 being offered today but we need more.
‘We would like to have 10 000 or more tracers on the ground. We need to make them be able to move on the ground without any problems,” he said.
The South African government plans to intensify its fight against COVID-19, with the aim of conducting 30 000 tests a day in the next few weeks.
“We want to make sure that our testing capacity has increased so much. Right now we are only able to do 5000 tests a day, but in the next few weeks we want to ramp it out to about 30 000. We will also be bringing in rapid test kits which will be able to test hundreds of thousands of people,” the minister said.
Mkhize has also cautioned South Africans against complacency in the battle against new infections.
He said although new infections are slowly rising at the moment, there is still set to be a dramatic rise in infections and deaths.
The country has recorded 1380 cases of coronavirus since the first infection in March.