Why SA (and the world) won’t cope with a coronavirus outbreak
Authorities are ready for the inevitable first case reaching SA, but a large outbreak will overwhelm ‘any health system in the world’
05 March 2020 - 05:00
It is no longer a case of if the coronavirus comes to SA but when. By Tuesday, the virus, which causes the disease Covid-19, had made its way to about 70 countries outside China. South Korea, Italy and Iran, among others, have been hit hard.
Reassuringly, critical-care physician and professor Guy Richards believes SA is ready. He is an expert at the quarantine treatment of highly infectious patients. Richards supervised treatment of an Ebola case at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, a designated Covid-19 quarantine hospital, and no health worker was infected...
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