The big issues facing our country are not illegal cigarettes, when we can exercise, or whether we can get warm food at the supermarket. The big issues are how to drive the reproduction rate of the virus below one. One part of the solution is the good practice of hygiene, physical distancing and masking up. The other part is testing, tracing, isolation, and hotspot management.
Shortly after the Berlin wall fell, one of us was asked to meet with the top managers of a Trabant plant. The parking lot was full of trabbies with faults rendering them unfit for market. As far as the factory manager was concerned, they were made to spec. He had achieved the targets that he was set. But they did not fulfil the basic requirement of an automobile. They did not work., driving passengers after testing positive for Covid-19. There was, of course, the immediate outrage.
Let’s compare this with the process in Wuhan, where timeous testing was the key to the lifting of lockdown. Anecdotally anyone entering or leaving a building was screened for temperature. If they tested positive, they were immediately taken to a dedicated facility and their lungs were CT scanned. In our country, CT scan turnaround times are at best several hours. But by targeting lungs only, Wuhan radiographers, working with radiologists, were able to reduce the process to minutes.
As Bill Gates put it, if the test comes back positive what should the patient do? Send their contacts a letter of apology?Over the next few weeks, as the economy opens up, a lot of focus will be on managing potential hotspots. All enclosed spaces where workers spend long periods in close proximity to one another are Petri dishes for the spread of COV-2. The United States shows just how difficult it is to maintain safe production in meat plants.
Like East Germany in the 80s and 90s, South Africa has fallen behind in terms of basic management practices. We make absurd statements, such as: “We are good at policy, but bad at implementation.” There is no reason why it should take us a week to do what the Chinese do in four hours.Basically, we need to map the process and identify bottlenecks, handovers and points of weakness. We need to optimise the repetitive tasks with standard operating practices.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Experts call for streamlining and rationalising of testingColleges of Medicine of SA - the custodian of the quality of medical care in South Africa - says SA needs to reduce unnecessary testing & preserve test kits for when they are needed most.
Read more »
DA questions Covid-19 figures in the Northern CapeThe DA in the Northern Cape has accused the provincial department health of poor contact tracing and testing, as well as a lack of transparency when dealing with the Covid-19 coronavirus, and is calling on Health Minister Zweli Mkhize to intervene
Read more »
Almost 600 coronavirus infections in SA’s prisonsThere has been a steep jump in the number of coronavirus infections in the prison system.
Read more »
Almost 600 coronavirus infections in SA’s prisonsThere has been a steep jump in the number of coronavirus infections in the prison system.
Read more »
Covid-19 wrap | EU coronavirus recovery initiative, Japan recession, sex doll controversy in South Korea, and coronavirus probe gains momentumCovid-19 wrap: EU coronavirus recovery initiative, Japan recession, sex doll controversy in South Korea, and coronavirus probe gains momentum | Covid19Pandemic
Read more »
Zimbabwe extends coronavirus lockdown 'indefinitely'Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa says the country needs to ease out of the lockdown 'in a strategic and gradual manner'.
Read more »