‘Isolate for 14 days if you went to Rage’

The Gauteng health department has said 1 322 matric Rage revellers have been identified, with 984 of them testing positive for Covid-19.

Groups of festival goers – who attended the annual Rage event in KwaZulu-Natal – were tracked down and identified in Johannesburg and Pretoria.

“Out of 1 322 students from the Johannesburg and Tshwane districts in the main, 1 050 have already undergone testing for Covid-19. Of these, 984 tested positive. These students had 340 contacts of which 32 tested positive,” department spokeswoman Kwara Kekana said in a statement yesterday.

The department was concerned about uncooperative pupils as healthcare workers continue with contact tracing.

At least 99 pupils would not cooperate while 173 others either had supplied wrong contact information or were unreachable.

“We call on those who went to the rage event to quarantine themselves for 14 days and go for testing urgently. Those who test positive will need to isolate for a mandatory 10 days,” Kekana said.

The government has identified parties and other crowded events as superspreaders this festive season. Authorities have implored South Africans to avoid large gatherings as infections have increased exponentially ahead of the holiday season.

SA has officially entered the second wave, with more than 8 000 infections in the past two days.

Health Minister Zweli Mkhize urged South Africans to adhere to Covid-19 protocols during the December holidays or face sickness and death. –