Gauteng Health MEC Bandile Masuku responded to Jack Bloom MPL’s question in a virtual meeting yesterday regarding the quickness of test results, the MEC revealed that there can be a ‘lag’ of around 8 days for results to be finalized.
The latest figures for Gauteng show 166,394 tests have been conducted since the start of the outbreak, 6121 which were done on the 19th May 2020.
A delay in results is not unheard of and it does not necessarily mean the province is doing badly. The World Health Organisation backs this up by saying that the backlog of results is a general problem experienced worldwide.
The Gauteng Health Department recently gave a presentation showing how some results can come in as quickly as 48 hours and some can take up to 11 days.
Gauteng has now contacted the relevant departments such as the National Department of Health to find ways they can slimline the process and speed up receiving the results.
“The delay in getting the results will inevitably have some effect on reducing transmission. To try mitigating against this all People Under Investigation (PUI) are educated to self – isolate or are put in quarantine if required whilst awaiting the results … plans are being put into place to try source more test kits as Gauteng ramps up its effort to test even more people,” said Gauteng Health Department.
