Metro taking strong proactive action to curb Covid-19
Proactive measures comes off the back of President Ramaphosa’s declaration of National State of Disaster on Sunday, March 15.
The Ekurhuleni mayor Mzwandile Masina has outlined a list of containment and mitigation measures to decrease the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to the mayor, following extensive consultation with the City’s senior managers and in line with the best practice measures outlined by the National Department of Health and the World Health Organisation, the City of Ekurhuleni has decided to embark on the following measures:
• Covid-19 joint operations centre
The City has activated a Joint Operations Centre (JOC) to coordinate the metro’s response to the Covid-19 outbreak.
The JOC is composed of senior officials from all the City’s departments and will be convened on every Tuesday and Thursday.
“The JOC will provide me with daily situational reports on developments relating to the outbreak. The JOC will meet with various city stakeholders regularly to receive input and provide updates on developments surrounding the outbreak,” said the mayor.
• Workplace management
He said the City believes the health and safety of its employees remains a top priority. To this effect the City is currently rolling out the following measures:
* The City will be allocating hand sanitising stations at all entrances of government buildings and will be enforcing hygiene protocols to all individuals entering and exiting the buildings.
* The City will be introducing scheduled sanitation of commonly used objects across the City, this includes telephones, door handles, taps, and desks among other things.
* The City is currently investigating the introduction of staggered reporting times across the City’s depot’s in order to minimise the number of people gathered at these venues.
* The City is in the process of setting up a dedicated hotline for employees who have any questions regarding Covid-19 and possible symptoms.
* The City is considering the introduction of a work from home protocol for high-risk staff members and will make an announcement to this effect in the near future.
* The Human Resource Department will further publish leave management guidelines for the current National State of Disaster.
* A moratorium on all official staff travel, domestic and international have been enforced until further notice.
• Social distancing
The mayor said the City recognises that globally, social distancing has emerged as one of the most effective methods of slowing down the Covid-19 pandemic. With this in mind the City has decided to enforce the closure of the following government-owned facilities:
Community halls, civic centres, stadia and sports fields, lakes, public swimming pools, innovation and business labs and nature reserves.
“All upcoming City events have been postponed until further notice. The City is currently investigating an innovative solution to conduct public participation through digital platforms to avoid public gatherings,” said the mayor.
“Public cemeteries will remain open throughout the state of disaster. Families are advised to keep funeral attendance to under 100 people and exercise punctuality during their service, to avoid contact with other funeral parties.
“Public libraries will not be allowed to host more than 100 people at a time. All visitors to our libraries will be required to be seated a minimum of 1.5m apart. The City is considering shortening the operating hours of libraries.
“Restaurants and taverns are advised not to exceed the limit of 100 patrons within their facilities. The City also calls upon these establishments to introduce strict hygiene protocols for their staff and customers.”
The City has also urged all shopping centres and malls to monitor the number of customers entering their facilities. We also encourage retailers to introduce measures to mitigate panic buying by customers.
• Communications and public education
The mayor said the City will be rolling out a mass public awareness campaign regarding the outbreak.
“This includes intensive education workshops that will be provided to high-risk individuals in the City by health and safety officials, along with daily situation updates that will be sent to City residents via SMS and digital media platforms.”
He said an internal communications campaign will be rolled out to educate City employees of Covid-19 and provide regular updates of decisions taken by the City which may affect them.
• Health facilities
In order to minimise the potential strain the pandemic might exert on our public hospitals. The City will be capacitating our local clinics with the following interventions:
* Sanitisation stations are currently set up at the entrance of all of the City’s clinics.
* All clinics will allocate isolation rooms for patients that display symptoms of the virus, where they will be tested and quarantined before being sent to a hospital.
* Further training of clinical staff will continue in order to ensure they are suitably prepared to deal with potential cases.
• Ports of entry
“The City of Ekurhuleni is home to the continent’s busiest airport, OR Tambo International. This means the City must take an active interest in the screening, tracing and reporting of contact individuals at this port to safeguard the wellness of our residents,” said the mayor.
To this effect the City has introduced the following measures:
* The City has deployed health and safety officials to OR Tambo International Airport and the Rand Airport to assess the effectiveness of screening of entrants into the City and monitor the enforcement of hygiene protocols throughout the facilities.
* Additional City health and safety officers will be stationed at both airports to support Covid-19 containment measures.
• Account payments
The City encourages account holders to utilise the Siyakhokha online system. Siyakhokha offers our residents and businesses the convenience of online services, while at the same time promoting social distancing.
“The City is aware that the following measures will inconvenience a large number of our residents. The drastic measures being undertaken by the City are in the interest of protecting our citizens and drastically slowing down the spread of the virus.
“As we continue to learn more about Covid-19, we are asking the citizens of the City of Ekurhuleni to come together and play their part in curbing this pandemic.
“Now is not the time to panic, but we must rather empower ourselves with knowledge and follow best practices for reducing the spread of the virus. The City will continue to do everything within our power to keep you safe,” said the mayor.
