JOHANNESBURG — The Gauteng Health Department said that it was allowing one visitor to spend 15 minutes with a patient at public health facilities as per COVID-19 safety protocols, in line with level one of the lockdown.
This rule did not apply to patients who were in the COVID-19 wards where they were recovering after contracting the virus. The department said that visitors must adhere to strict non-pharmaceutical measures to minimise overcrowding and avoid congestion in the province's busy hospitals. "We understand that these measures are necessarily not the most ideal as many relatives and friends of patients in our care would like to spend a little more time with their loved ones however in a bid to ensure that we minimise the spread of COVID-19 in our facilities the hospitals need to adhere to non-pharmaceutical measures," said the department's Kwara Kekana.