Asthmatic and diabetic Gautengers to be tested for coronavirus

After initially limiting coronavirus testing to people who had travelled overseas, displayed symptoms of the virus or been exposed to patients who tested positive, the Gauteng health department on Tuesday announced that it will open up testing to more people.

“From now onwards, testing will be offered to all vulnerable groups who are most at risk of contracting coronavirus,” read a statement from the office of Gauteng health MEC Bandile Masuku.

“These include older people and people with other medical conditions, such as asthma, diabetes or heart disease. The test will be done even if the people do not show Covid-19 related symptoms.”

This comes as the province tries to reduce the number of infections and fatalities caused by the virus.

On Monday, the province had recorded 1,661 positive coronavirus cases. Among those were 1,026 recoveries and 14 deaths.

Just under 1.8-million people have been screened for the virus in Gauteng so far. Screening involves answering a questionnaire, which allows for screeners to weigh the likelihood of whether the person has the virus.

From that number, 25,838 people have been referred for testing.

Meanwhile, 68 people in the province are in hospital, both public and private, after contracting the virus.