Coronavirus 2019 in South Africa: let’s arm ourselves with the facts

On Thursday 5 March 2020 the National Department of Health confirmed South Africa’s first case of coronavirus disease 2019 (officially named COVID-19). The individual who acquired the illness is a 38-year-old male, located in KwaZulu-Natal, who had travelled to Italy with his wife as part of a group of 10 people. The case has been isolated and containment measures are ongoing. South Africa’s surveillance and health systems worked well to rapidly identify and contain this first case.

Italy is one of a few countries experiencing widespread community transmission of the virus that causes the COVID-19 respiratory illness. There is a high likelihood that COVID?19 will spread to many other countries in the near future. Global markets are bearing the brunt of negative sentiment that follows the almost daily announcement of yet another COVID?19 hotspot.

I want to respond to the current global and local anxiety around COVID-19 with a justified call for calm, for three reasons:

First, the daily reported increase in global cases remains low at present, with less than one reported case per million people.

Second, this is an illness that the vast majority of people can overcome - the vast majority of people who contract COVID?19 experience only mild symptoms, including fever, a cough and shortness of breath. The estimates of the mortality impact are unclear. Most experts agree that it is probably under 1%. Considering that the majority of infections are only mildly symptomatic, the number of actual cases is likely under-reported.

Third, the preventive habits that safeguard against contracting and spreading COVID?19 are simple and cost?effective: Regularly wash your hands for at least 20 seconds, practice cough etiquette, avoid close contact with people who are ill, clean and disinfect frequently-touched surfaces.

Discovery has taken a bold, deeply knowledge?based leadership position in our response to COVID?19.

1. We are regularly engaging with the National Department of Health and the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD). We are also in contact with international experts including daily access to information provided by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (which is based in the USA). The Discovery leadership team has also formed a committee supported by subject?matter experts and is meeting daily to monitor the spread of COVID?19.
2. As the largest open medical scheme in the country, the Discovery Health Medical Scheme (DHMS) has quickly developed the DHMS WHO Global Outbreak Benefit. This new benefit provides funding in full, from the scheme’s risk pools, to cover the test and supportive treatment in the case of a confirmed COVID-19 infection. DHMS worked with the Council for Medical Schemes to finalise a new benefit in a very short space of time, to meet the mandate to proactively cover members’ current and future healthcare needs.
3. We encourage all South Africans to fully understand the facts about COVID-19 and to visit our regularly updated Information Hub on our Discovery website.
4. As a business, we are investing in protecting the health of every employee, stakeholder (we have developed a toolkit for employers) and, by extension, every South African.

Every South African plays a role in the constructive, national effort to curb the spread of COVID?19. Our individual and national response to coronavirus 2019 should be to follow the guidelines on minimising infection risk, access healthcare swiftly when at risk and to prevent the spread of stigma around COVID-19. Misinformation creates fear and anxiety, and stigmatises people who contract COVID?19 so that they hide their illness, and refrain from adopting behaviours that curb the spread of infection.

Getting our response to coronavirus 2019 right really matters. The virus that causes COVID?19 has reached us weeks before the start of this year’s influenza (flu) season. It has never made more sense to have the annual flu vaccine than it does in 2020.

Let’s work together to spread a message of reason and calm. Let each one of us carry out the preventive habits that curb the spread of infection, for the good of all South Africans and people the world over.

For more information:

• Read the WHO’s Q&A on coronaviruses here.
• Read the NICD’s Q&A on coronaviruses here.
• Read the WHO and UNICEF’s document on Social Stigma associated with COVID?19.

For support:

• Navigate to the Discovery COVID?19 Information Hub
• Contact Discovery Health on 0860 99 88 77 for more information.
• Visit the NICD website.

-       By Dr Ryan Noach, CEO of Discovery Health