Limpopo expands TB facility to create treatment centre for intensive care Covid-19 cases

• A health facility built to treat severe tuberculosis cases has been expanded to cater for Covid-19 patients.
  
• The facility will cater for large parts of Limpopo.
• The province says it doesn't have the money to build field hospitals in various districts.

The Limpopo government on Thursday officially opened a Covid-19 health facility which will cater for patients who may need high or intensive care treatment.

The facility in Modimolle was initially built for multiple-drug resistance (MDR) TB patients.

It has now been expanded into a Covid-19 hospital with an extra 89 beds fitted with high-flow oxygen machines and 29 others with ventilators.

It was the same facility in which two doctors were forcefully quarantined two months ago until the Polokwane High Court ordered their discharge.

READ | Two Limpopo doctors released from coronavirus quarantine after court settlement

At the venue, Premier Stan Mathabatha said the province cannot afford to build Covid-19 field hospitals in the districts, hence the transformation of the facility.

"We are not going to come up with temporary hospitals, not necessarily that we don't want to do it. We cannot afford them and we want to use the resources that we have optimally," he said.

On schools, he said pupils in certain grades would remain at home until all challenges related to the pandemic have been addressed.

The hospital was opened as the province recorded 356 new cases in the past 24 hours on Wednesday. The total figure stood at 5 740 positive cases, with 64 deaths reported.

The Capricorn district now has the highest number of cases at 1 744.