Giant holding company,Impala Platinum has donated ventilators to the Department of Health in Rustenburg. The generous donation will help patients who are hospitalized in Shimankana Tabane and Moses Kotane. The machines were handed over to Professor John Tumbo and director of the North West Department of Health,Maggie Mere.
The second wave of Covid-19 has placed significant pressure on South Africa’s and Bojanala’s healthcare services and facilities, which have seen double the number of cases as the first wave. Hence, the new ventilators will provide critical capacity for Covid cases in the two hospitals.
“We were very fortunate to have good facilities and sufficient beds, ventilators and oxygen to cope with the patients. However, in the second wave, we saw patients who became far sicker than in the first wave, which placed enormous pressure on the public sector hospitals and facilities. We have therefore decided to donate this essential equipment to Professor Tumbo and his team to help save lives in the broader community,” said Dr Andrews, Impala’s HSE executive.
The ventilators are easily portable and are able to connect to either fixed or portable oxygen supply, giving the Department of Health the flexibility to move them to where they are most needed at short notice.
Impala Platinum also handed over 1,000 rapid Covid-19 antigen tests. These tests provide accurate results in patients displaying Covid symptoms within 15 minutes. They will assist the Department in the rapid diagnosis and admission of patients while waiting for confirmation results from laboratory PCR (Polymer Chain Reaction) tests, potentially saving many more lives of people and reducing the risk of infection to health care workers.
“This is not the first time we’ve received assistance from Impala at a time when we are struggling. This second wave was unusual because it is a variant that affects people more rapidly and more severely. We are seeing patients deteriorate rapidly and being portable, these ventilators will enable us to look at the dynamics of where the pressure points are and move them to where they are needed. We truly appreciate this gesture,” Professor Tumbo.
“The donation of these ventilators, along with other life-saving equipment like first aid kits donated to local schools and oxygen donated to the Rustenburg field hospital last year, is our response to the need to work together and to react proactively to the changes in the virus,” closed Mark Munroe, chief executive of Impala Rustenburg.
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