The Government has announced that is has come up with a solution after infamous reports that hospitals were refusing to admit patients without prior COVID-19 tests circulated, The Herald Reports. The government has directed both private and public hospitals to administer a PRC test on admission and establish patient under investigation zones in their hospitals to avoid turning away patients.
This was revealed during a post Cabinet briefing when Women’s Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Minister Sithembiso Nyoni said:
Cabinet has directed that all hospitals should admit patients without the pre-requirement for a prior Covid-19 test result and proceed to do a PCR test on admission. To that end, the Ministry of Health and Child Care has already directed all public and private health institutions to establish patient-under-investigation zones to ensure that no patients are turned away.
Scores of people have reported that their relatives and friends were turned away or required to come back with a COVID-19 test result for them to be admitted at various hospitals and some had died waiting for the COVID-19 results or waiting to be admitted.
More: The Herald