MASTER BUILDERS AND ALLIED TRADES' ASSOCIATION WESTERN CAPE
MBAWC INFORMATION BULLETIN | EDITION 26 | DAY 105
COVID-19 | UPDATE
Dear Members
This week we surpassed the 100 day mark of the lockdown and as mentioned in an earlier bulletin, the COVID-19 storm is now raging and expected to get worse over the coming weeks. Of note is the fact that the Gauteng region have now surpassed the Western Cape in the total cumulative cases of COVID-19, having exceeded 75000 as at yesterday, 8 July.
On a positive note, our OHS team have seen a significant return to sites by a number of our members and they have highly praised the adherence to COVID-19 protocols as far as Health and Safety is concerned. This was good to hear and we can only urge you all to continue in this way in order to curb the spread.
In other news, the CIDB produced a standard for developing skills through infrastructure contracts which was published in the Government Gazette this week. In order to view the notice, click here.
Applications for June UIF/TERS opened this week after technical issues were experienced which forced the closure of the website for acceptance of June applications. We continue to escalate issues our members are experiencing with their applications, but it appears that the backlog is enormous and progress, as mentioned previously, is slow.
We have heard from our contact within the Western Cape Government that our applications have been escalated higher within the Department of Labour and can only hope that we are able to report on some resolution soon. On a positive note, we have received reports from members who have been made whole with UIF/TERS - unfortunately these are in the minority.
A reminder that reports have indicated that there will be no further UIF/TERS benefits available beyond June applications.
There are a number of reasons why we do not recommend testing of a person with no symptoms, even if you are a close contact of a confirmed COVID-19 case, or have recently travelled to a country where COVID-19 is circulating in the community:
A negative test result in a person with no symptoms does not mean that you do not have COVID-19. You could still be in the early stage of COVID-19 and develop symptoms later. Therefore, testing when you do not have symptoms could give a false-negative result.
Even if your laboratory test result was negative, you would still need to stay at home in quarantine for 14 days if you travelled to a region with high transmission or had close contact with a person with confirmed COVID-19. Refer to guidance on what to do if I am a close contact of a person with confirmed disease and am asked to home quarantine.
If you tested negative and mistakenly interpreted this to mean that you were not infected, you could go back to your usual activities and spread the virus while you still had an early infection.
There is a shortage of laboratory tests globally, and we need to reserve our valuable laboratory testing resources for those who are sick and for those groups of people where we can use these test results for public health good.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the Covid-19 outbreak a pandemic on 11 March 2020.
But WHO director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says the declaration does not change how the organisation will deal with the threat the virus poses.
"It doesn't change what WHO is doing and it doesn't change what countries should do."
"We are aware that our frontline workers like nurses and other medical staff have been affected by the pandemic. We would like to send the appeal for employers to ensure that workers are adequately protected and are given the necessary protective gear to do their jobs. Our figures show that most affected employees are nurses who are paying the ultimate price so that we get a second chance and survive the pandemic," said Employment and Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi.
Click on the image to read the latest version of the South Africa Builder
The official Master Builders South Africa magazine
Note the Webinar which takes place on Wednesday, 15th July 2020 which will feature, amongst others, the MBSA President and our own Past President, Mr John Matthews. Attendance is free of charge. Click on the image below to register.
