The South African National Defence Force’s (SANDF’s) chief medical officer, the Surgeon General, confirmed on April 15 that four members of the “military community” had tested positive for Covid-19. Three were in the Western Cape and one in Gauteng.
None of the cases involved uniformed members of the SANDF. Nor were they personnel deployed in support of the South African Police Service.
The South African Military Health Service (SAMHS) stressed that the military community was bigger than the SANDF itself. It included dependants of serving military personnel, retired military personnel and others eligible for treatment by the SAMHS.
“Frontline workers (emergency medical teams, nurses, doctors, porters including soldiers patrolling the townships) have been issued with Personal Protective Equipment,” assured the SAMHS in its statement. “Other preventive measures include thermal screening, hand sanitising, and wearing of surgical masks by Department of Defence personnel.”
The SAMHS was educating Defence Department personnel in the proper use of surgical masks, maintaining physical distancing, and ensuring good basic hygiene. The SANDF had also identified facilities at defence establishments that could be used as overflow isolation and quarantine facilities for military hospitals and sick bays, should Covid-19 cases exceed their capacity.
All cases of Covid-19 were managed and treated in accordance with the prescribed protocol for dealing with the pandemic. “The Surgeon General would like to emphasise that the military community is part of the broader South African population thus the SANDF is not immune from the spread of the coronavirus.”