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The South African Medical Association says it is nonsensical that the Department of Health has retracted an earlier circular relating to contract tracing, quarantine requirements, and isolation protocols on COVID-19.
SAMA chairperson, Dr Angelique Coetzee, said the reversal of these protocols barely a week after being announced “raises some extremely serious questions” which the Department must answer.
She said the Association supported the revised protocols as the measures were good and recognised the importance of people to remain active in society and work.
Dr Coetzee says some of the current provisions that now remain as a result of the retracting of the amended protocols are irrational. She says quarantining someone who has been vaccinated, for instance, is ludicrous if that person has no symptoms of COVID-19.
She says contact tracing is another, where she says it only makes sense in certain cases, but, if mandated through a blanket protocol, places a huge burden on healthcare workers and the healthcare system.
The Department of Health in a statement on 28 December retracted its earlier provisions but did not give reasons for its decision, a fact SAMA says must be addressed urgently.
“At the time we supported the department’s revised protocols noting that the measures were good and that they highlighted the importance of people to remain actively involved in society and at work.”
“The reversal of these protocols barely a week after they were first announced raises some extremely serious questions, which the department must provide answers for. To simply say the provisions have been repealed is simply not good enough,” Coetzee said.
“The previous circular made a lot of sense. We have to question why it was changed, and who put pressure on the Department of Health to retract it. The department, in our view, has a lot to answer for because of this development,” noted Dr Coetzee.
