JOHANNESBURG, March 6 (ANA) - South Africa's mining industry has extensive and existing systems in place to deal with communicable diseases and provide healthcare, a council representing producers said on Friday, hours after a union called for a summit to discuss how prepared the sector was to handle COVID-19.
Health minister Zweli Mkhize said on Thursday a 38-year-old man from KwaZulu-Natal had become South Africa's first confirmed case of the disease, which is spreading across the globe after first being detected in China last December.
In a statement issued after Mkhize's announcement, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (
Amcu) said miners -- who have to work in cramped areas with compressed air and high heat -- were particularly vulnerable to the disease.
"Working spaces like lifts known as "cages" are the ideal breeding ground for this disease," the union said.
“Amcu calls upon mining houses to call an urgent coronavirus summit , as a forum to gauge and bolster the state of preparedness for Covid-19 in the mining sector."
In its own comments on Friday, which did not refer to the Amcu statement, Minerals Council South Africa said it had last month provided its members with material on mitigation measures against the novel coronavirus disease after the World Health Organization declared it a public health emergency of international concern in January.
"That the virus has now been confirmed to have arrived in South Africa emphasises the importance of taking these actions," the council said.
"We recognise that the mining sector has special circumstances that could make it vulnerable to transmission of infectious diseases such as COVID-19. Employees congregate in areas of work, and travel in close proximity."
It however added that the industry had "extensive and existing systems in place to deal with communicable diseases, the monitoring of health and provision of healthcare".
This, it said, included ensuring access to consumables such as masks, sanitisers and testing kits, as well as hardware such as temperature monitors.
"From an internal perspective, the industry is putting in place risk-mitigating measures to rapidly identify any cases of the virus, to ensure rapid isolation and contact tracing, and could – if it was necessary – mobilise large-scale medical facilities," it said.
"The Minerals Council also stands ready to work with all relevant parts of government to manage the spread of the virus."
The KZN man confirmed to have Covid-19 arrived in Johannesburg from a holiday trip to Italy on March 1, but only developed symptoms two days later, health minister Mkhize said on Thursday, adding that the patient was now receiving treatment in an undisclosed public hospital.
The latest situational update from the World Health Organization, dated Thursday, says there are now 95 333 confirmed cases of Covid-19, 80 565 of them in China. Some 14 768 cases have been confirmed in 85 other countries. The death toll stands at 3 015 in China and 267 elsewhere.
- African News Agency (ANA), Editing by Stella Mapenzauswa
