Gauteng had to obtain court orders for Covid-19 patients

Many people refused to quarantine

The Gauteng government was the first to force people who tested positive for Covid-19 to quarantine in the early stages of the epidemic.

In March last year, barely a week after the first case was confirmed, a mother and her daughter threw a spanner in the works for the province when they refused to be quarantined.

The woman’s husband refused to get tested despite coming into contact with his wife and daughter.

The Gauteng health department approached the court at night on an urgent basis for a court order which was granted around 1am. Police were then roped in to trace the family and get the man tested and force them to isolate.

A few days later, the health department was back in court, this time to force a church to stop holding services.

It took a court order to force the church in Katlehong, on the East Rand, to comply with the gazetted regulations which prevented large gatherings, including church services.

The church had ignored the regulations and continued with its church services until members of the community reported it.

Around the end of March, police and port health services officials needed to step in as a group of German tourists were refusing to cooperate after one of them had tested positive for Covid-19 and had to be stopped from leaving the country.

When others were required to test as they had been contacts, they refused and planned on leaving the country without being tested or put in quarantine.

Forty-seven members of the group were put into quarantine at a private facility in Gauteng after they were stopped while trying to leave the country on March 26.

Due to the limited quarantine space, 15 other members of the group were accommodated at one of Gauteng’s health facilities.