The Covid-19 outbreak at St Augustine's Hospital in Durban, which forced health authorities to close it down, resulted in 119 people testing positive and 15 patient deaths
“The most plausible explanation for the outbreak is that there was a single introduction of the severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus 2 to the hospital in early March, most likely through transmission from a patient being assessed for Covid-19 in the emergency department to another patient being admitted at the same time with a suspected stroke,” the investigating team found.
The investigation was led by UKZN academics Dr Richard Lessells, Prof Yunus Moosa and Prof Tulio de Oliveira, bringing together expertise in infectious diseases, epidemiology and viral genomics. Investigation methods included medical record reviews, ward visits and interviews with health-care workers and managers.
“To us, our findings highlighted how easily and quickly this virus can spread through a hospital. The initial spread of the virus was not recognised at the time, because the first patient who we think was infected in the emergency department was not initially suspected of having Covid-19. She did not have any of the typical risk factors and initially only had fever without cough or other respiratory symptoms,” said Lessells.
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