“I tested positive,” says Jemimah Mokubunge, on Friday, June 5, 2020, holding a (health-union SAFTU) sign that alleges that Tygerberg nurse Ntombizakithi Ngidi, who died of COVID-19 related illness, was initially refused medical care by her superiors. Mokubunge is a clerk handling patients’ hospital records. “Sometimes we get coronavirus patients’ records,” she said. “And there was no sanitizer. Most of the people (in the department) got positive.” When the first person in her department contracted the virus, that employee was the one to notify her colleagues by calling them from isolation, explains Mokubunge. “We asked to be tested,” she said. But “they refused us to get tested.” “Only when the second person tested positive were we allowed to get tested,” she said. “I tested positive. I did not feel sick.” Mokubunge lives with her husband, mother and nine-month old baby. “They said I could isolate with the baby,” she said she was advised by the health professionals. After quarantining at home for 14 days, Mokubunge was told to go back to work. No retesting was available, she said. Her family tested negative for the virus. Hospital workers demonstrate outside Tygerberg Hospital, in Cape Town, to bring their plight to the attention of President Cyril Ramaphosa, as he visited the Cape Town Province. PHOTO: EVA-LOTTA JANSSON
Image Number: APN720745

APN720745

Headline: Tygerberg frontline worker protest Title: Tygerberg frontline workers protest Description: “I tested positive,” says Jemimah Mokubunge, on Friday, June 5, 2020, holding a (health-union SAFTU) sign that alleges that Tygerberg nurse Ntombizakithi Ngidi, who died of COVID-19 related illness, was initially refused medical care by her superiors. Mokubunge is a clerk handling patients’ hospital records. “Sometimes we get coronavirus patients’ records,” she said. “And there was no sanitizer. Most of the people (in the department) got positive.” When the first person in her department contracted the virus, that employee was the one to notify her colleagues by calling them from isolation, explains Mokubunge. “We asked to be tested,” she said. But “they refused us to get tested.” “Only when the second person tested positive were we allowed to get tested,” she said. “I tested positive. I did not feel sick.” Mokubunge lives with her husband, mother and nine-month old baby. “They said I could isolate with the baby,” she said she was advised by the health professionals. After quarantining at home for 14 days, Mokubunge was told to go back to work. No retesting was available, she said. Her family tested negative for the virus. Hospital workers demonstrate outside Tygerberg Hospital, in Cape Town, to bring their plight to the attention of President Cyril Ramaphosa, as he visited the Cape Town Province. PHOTO: EVA-LOTTA JANSSON City: Cape Town Province or State: Western Cape Country: South Africa Date Created: 05-06-2020 Creator: Eva-Lotta Jansson Credit Notice: Eva-Lotta Jansson / Independent Photographers / african.pictures Pixel Dimensions X: 3400 Pixel Dimensions Y: 2269 Rights usage terms: Restrictions:  This image does NOT have all model and property releases. Additional clearance may be required for non-editorial use and for use in association with socially sensitive subject matter