Update

HESSEQUA NEWS - A medical doctor from the Overberg district, Dr Jacques du Toit, has been highlighted as a Rural Coronavirus Hero by the Western Cape health department. Du Toit is the medical manager for the Swellendam and Cape Agulhas sub-districts.

According to communications officer Roché Butler the Coronavirus Hero campaign seeks to highlight healthcare workers and support staff's achievements, abilities, personal qualities, or victories during the Covid-19 pandemic.

She says Du Toit has always been involved in his community. During the pandemic, he saw the need for a hands-on approach in this predominantly farming community, as they generally don't have access to the resources to obtain the latest Covid-19 information. 

Over the past four months he has been educating farm workers and farm owners, shop owners, schools and members of the community on Covid-19, what it is, how it spreads, the precautions that need to be taken and how a positive case in the work place needs to be handled.

Being a medical manager of two sub-districts he could easily have delegated relevant staff members to complete these tasks, but he actively became involved in all aspects of the pandemic. He continuously assists business owners with determining close and casual contacts when a positive case is identified, moves onto farms with a quadbike to explain to farm workers how the process of quarantine and isolation will work should it be necessary, and also assists and advises non-profit organisations in the communities.

Du Toit says he has had an amazing team who has supported him and the community without end. "Staff members have worked around the clock to offer support during the pandemic."

In order to ensure they reach the most vulnerable groups the doctor and his team visited the farms's pick up points very early in the mornings to screen the farm workers, educate them and ensure safety measures are being followed.

Gwendoline van der Westhuizen, Swellendam and Cape Agulhas PHC manager says, "Dr Du Toit is a no nonsense medical manager, he reiterates that we need to pay attention to detail and when looking back, that is what has brought us this far. He always gone the extra mile, he has not taken any time off and even worked over weekends where needed."

Roché says the Swellendam sub-district has recently seen a decrease in the amount of new positive cases and cases that need to be hospitalised. Du Toit atributes this to the whole of society approach which the sub-district has adopted. Each stakeholder/department have actively played their role in helping the members of their community during this pandemic. Du Toit is appreciative of his team and says this result could only have been possible with everyone's cooperation. "You can't beat this thing if you try to do it on your own, a hands-on approach and teamwork is very important," he explained.

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