The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has expressed concern after a lab result, which initially indicated that an employee tested positive for coronavirus, turned out to be incorrect.
The new test result has since come back negative.
ERROR OCCURS DURING INITIAL CORONAVIRUS TEST
The SABC, in a statement on Wednesday 27 May, said certain developments have emerged regarding a reported positive coronavirus case in one of its employees in the Durban office.
The SABC explained that an error occurred regarding the initial test result:
“The confirmation for the positive test result that was reported yesterday, was based on the official lab results presented to the employee. The employee has since been alerted by the lab in question that an error occurred during the initial testing and the employee was presented with new test results, whose outcome was negative,” it said.
“The SABC can confirm that the corporation is in possession of both tests results. It must be noted that as per the norm, the corporation has duly followed and adhered to all the internal protocols prior to confirming the case,” it added.
SABC TO RESUME NORMAL OPERATION
The SABC said the latest reported coronavirus case has had a serious impact on the organisation, including the temporary closure of the Durban office. As to be expected, some staff members also urgently had to undergo testing.
The corporation did, however, say the office will resume its normal operations on Friday 29 May.
“The SABC has noted with appreciation the messages of support and encouragement received by the concerned employee at the time when the test result was assumed to be positive,” it added.
In March, almost three months ago, the corporation announced that its first staff member in the Northern Cape office tested positive. The SABC was then forced to close both the Northern Cape and Kimberly office. A second employee, based in Johannesburg, later tested positive for coronavirus.
At the time of publishing, the total number of coronavirus cases in South Africa stood at 24 264. Health Minister Mkhize also said that a total of 524 people had succumbed to the virus.
There had been 605 991 completed tests in total, with 9 214 completed in the last 24-hours. A total of 12 741 people had recovered from the virus, which translated to a 53% recovery rate.
Source: The South African Read More
