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Covid-19: South Africa backpedal on the end of contact case tracing

2021-12-28T22:04:04.925Z


Last week, the country announced that it would no longer be tracking contact cases of Covid-19 patients. A relaxation strongly criticized by the


Of short time.

South Africa, which announced last week the end of the tracing of contact cases of people tested positive for Covid-19, reversed this decision on Tuesday.

It had aroused many reactions on the merits of such a withdrawal.

“The health ministry has been inundated with questions and comments from the media, interested parties and the public,” he said in a statement.

He therefore decided to “put the implementation of this measure on hold” and apologized “for the confusion and inconvenience caused”.

Read alsoEnd of tracing and isolation: South Africa's crazy bet against Covid-19

Last week, the South African Directorate General of Health announced the end of tracing, believing that the high level of immunity with the vaccination and the large number of asymptomatic cases no longer made the device relevant.

“Most people have received at least one dose of the vaccine and have developed some level of immunity.

This has contributed to the low hospitalization rates and the current high cure rates, ”the ministry explained at the time.

Let the virus run?

In addition, many people are asymptomatic and only a small percentage of them are diagnosed.

However, many people "lose their income or precious time at school, by staying at home when they do not show symptoms," he continued.

The measure provided that contact cases are no longer required to be tested unless symptoms appear.

If they tested positive, they then had to isolate themselves.

After ten days, they were no longer required to retest and were allowed to resume normal activity.

But ultimately, backtracking and "all existing regulations on contact tracing, quarantine and isolation remain applicable," said the ministry.

South Africa is officially the most affected country on the continent by the pandemic, with nearly 3.4 million cases and more than 90,000 deaths.

“The test, the tracing of cases in search of chains of contamination, the isolation of contagious people, all of this is the first link in the fight against this pandemic.

We are not able today to think that the population, nowhere in the world, would be sufficiently protected by its immunity to let the virus run without testing it, tracing it and isolating contagious patients ”, criticized Antoine Flahault in our columns. .

It seems that he and his colleagues have been heard.

Source: leparis

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