Covid-19 tracking and tracing has allowed scores of young people across the country to earn a living.
By Adryan Ogle
Durban - Youth unemployment has been exacerbated by the nationwide Covid-19 shutdown.
However, some young people have found ways to not only stay afloat, but to help fight the spread of Covid-19 too.
Covid-19 tracking and tracing has allowed scores of young people across the country to earn a living.
One of these is Sphindile Ngcobo, a 29-year-old nurse.
The Durban native has seen her passion for helping people move across the country to the Western Cape.
“My career started in KZN during my matric year in 2009 when we had to do community work in our Life Orientation subject.
“I chose to work at the Dream Centre and look after people with HIV/Aids, and I have to say, by seeing the difference I made in someone’s life just by showing that I cared made me realise that I really like doing nursing. Since then I have loved being a nurse,” she said.
Ngcobo trained as a nurse at the JMM Nursing college in Durban.
She has adjusted to the novel coronavirus-induced “new normal”, having personally been involved with tracking and tracing Covid-19 in Hout Bay, Western Cape.
“For me it has not been that difficult since I’m used to working in the community and doing what we are doing every day. We had to ask our clients to remain indoors and we take most services, like medication for those on chronic medication, to them. In terms of providing Covid-19 healthcare, it has been going well so far,” said the mother of two.
At TB HIV Care in Hout Bay, the nurse works alongside other young people who have especially been employed to fight Covid-19.
“TB HIV Care hired 22 new health community workers and most of them are young and from the same community we work in,” said Ngcobo.
The company provided the new recruits with adequate training for the tracking and tracing of the virus, including the important lesson of confidentiality, Ngcobo explained.
“As young people we need to be more involved with our community and everything that is happening in our country and try to fight Covid-19,” she said.
Meanwhile, the Western Cape last week piloted the national track-and-trace system that is expected to be launched by the state, although nobody had been digitally monitored by the government yet, said the national Department of Health.
This comes after the department’s chief director of policy co-ordination and integrated planning, Milani Wolmarans, said manual contact tracing had health workers “completely overwhelmed”.
“It is a process to assist the tracers in a digitised format,” Wolmarans said.
The Independent on Saturday