Minister of Health Dr Zweli Mkhize on Thursday joined frontline health workers on a door-to-door screening of community members for the coronavirus (Covid-19), in Ermelo, in Mpumalanga and applauded them for their work, while urging them to continue screening efforts.

He revealed that Mpumalanga has already screened 94 000 people with 500 tests already conducted.

“I just want to say I appreciate the work that you are doing and we want you to remain strong and focused. We want you to know that for us to deal with this infection, it is the health workers at the forefront. In other words, we are going to battle, and you are the soldiers. What is important to the soldiers is that you must be well trained and you must be well armed. What is important for us is that we must be well protected so that while we are out there on the job, we don’t find ourselves contaminated with the virus,” Mkhize said.

Mkhize said that he was pleased that that the Mpumalanga province has enough personal protective equipment (PPE) for frontline health workers and promised that government would continue to make and receive new orders of PPE.

He urged healthcare workers to identify people with symptoms before they enter hospitals, also stressing that people with flu-like symptoms must be separated and masked in hospitals and clinics.

Mkhize warned that internal transmission of the virus was the biggest challenge and repeated President Cyril Ramaphosa’s call for people to stay at home, wash their hands and continue with physical distancing.

“We have learned that in Mpumalanga the coronavirus spread through people who were travelling abroad but what is now more worrisome is internal transmission. We urge that communities must continue exercising hand sanitising and using masks; and for your information, a cloth mask is very effective. We also believe that washing hands alone is not enough, you need to also wash the tap after using it,” he said.