While infection rates in Limpopo remain low, premier Stanley Mathabatha told media that it took 10 000 volunteers to conduct the province’s mass screening.

Health e-News caught up with 34 of these health care workers on the last day of screening at Mphego village.

The workers say they worked around the clock to ensure that they screened everyone living in the demarcated villages within the Thulamela local municipality. Other villages they visited included Dumasi, Budeli, Tshikhudini, Tshiulungoma and Lufule.

Asking to remain anonymous one of them relayed how difficult it was for 34 people to screen thousands of households. 

“We did encounter challenges such as having to spend several minutes explaining to some of the residents the reasons of our visits to their homes but in the end I can confidently say that we did our best”, she says.

She further says: “I am happy that most of the residents cooperated with us properly by allowing us to do our job which we were sent to do by the department of health”. 

Munzhenzhi Mafune from Mphego village believes government is handling the pandemic in the best way possible.

 “For the government to be able to send health workers to our rural villages shows that they care about our health and survival. I believe that if all of us obey what we are being told we might be able to overcome this pandemic. I have been obeying almost everything which we are being told such as staying at home and washing my hands all the times”, she says. 

But some residents were dissatisfied with the process. 

Fungisani Mashau, from Mashamba village, outside Elim says it was not as thorough as he expected.

“I was expecting that the mass screening process will be conducted the same way they are doing during roadblocks, were they also check one’s temperature. Because by only asking questions some people might lie and say they do not have any form of symptoms when they do have”, says Mashau. – Health-e News