‘I’m tired but I’m recovering’ – Prof Guy Richards on contracting Covid-19

At least eight doctors in Gauteng have succumbed to Covid-19, which angry healthcare workers have blamed on shortages of good quality personal protective equipment. They are among the 181 health workers who have died from the virus, according to figures revealed by Health Minister Zweli Mkhize.  Mkhize said 24,000 healthcare workers had been infected with Covid-19. How vulnerable healthcare workers are during the pandemic was highlighted when Professor Emeritus in Critical Care Guy Richards at Wits University, who is advising at the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, announced that he was one of the infected health workers. Prof Richards, who has been hailed by the medical community for the Covid-19 treatment regime that he and other Wits doctors devised, told BizNews in a podcast that hundreds of health workers in his hospital were infected but he regarded it as one of the hazards of his occupation. He also slammed the government's decision to allow taxis to fill up to 100% and to allow religious gatherings, saying they were 'a major means of transmission' of Covid-19. – Linda van Tilburg

Guy Richards: I tested positive on the 20th of July.

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