All non-urgent and emergency consultations will be postponed, as per the national guidelines. Each doctor will go through all patients at the beginning of each week and decide on urgency.
Patients will be seen if urgent or re-scheduled by the doctor. In some cases a telephonic consultation may take place.
We will communicate with all patients by SMS. Please check your phone the day before your planned appointment. We ask patients to please reply to SMS messages so that we know that you have received/understood the message.
On 31 December 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan City, China. ‘Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2’ (SARS-CoV-2) was confirmed as the causative agent of what we now know as ‘Coronavirus Disease 2019’ (COVID-19). Since then, the virus has spread to more than 100 countries, including South Africa.
Currently, travellers to areas where there is ongoing sustained transmission of COVID-19 including Mainland China (all provinces), Hong Kong, Japan, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Vietnam, Taiwan, Italy and the Islamic Republic of Iran are at greatest risk of infection.
Furthermore, the elderly, individuals with co-morbidities and healthcare workers have been found to be at a higher risk of death.
While the first cases probably involved exposure to an animal source, the virus now seems to be spreading from person-to-person.
The spread of the disease is thought to happen mainly via respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes, similar to how influenza and other respiratory pathogens spread. Thus far, the majority of cases have occurred in people with close physical contact to cases and healthcare workers caring for patients with COVID-19.
