Special COVID-19 app to screen SA’s workforce

29 May 2020 | Story Niémah Davids. Photo Raymond Botha. Voice Sarin Drew. Read time 5 min.
The COVID-19 Workplace Medical Passport is intuitive, user-friendly and takes employees just a minute to complete, says UCT’s Prof Mohammed Jeebhay.
The COVID-19 Workplace Medical Passport is intuitive, user-friendly and takes employees just a minute to complete, says UCT’s Prof Mohammed Jeebhay.
 

As South Africans prepare for lockdown level 3 as of Monday, 1 June and additional industries get ready to open shop, academics at the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) School of Public Health and Family Medicine, in collaboration with the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), have developed a useful screening tool that assesses whether workers are healthy enough to return to work.

The COVID-19 Workplace Medical Passport is a special application that uses technology to screen employees’ symptoms and current health status before they make their way to work. The data is then delivered straight to the occupational health and safety manager or the occupational health specialist for review, thanks to the application’s back-end component that generates an employer’s report.

Depending on the information employees provide, results are presented in three colours: red recommends “confirmatory [COVID-19] testing”, while orange encourages additional health monitoring and green means employees are well enough to proceed to work. These indicators are based on the National Department of Employment & Labour’s COVID-19 directive on health and safety in the workplace, and the National Department of Health’s symptom monitoring and management of staff with COVID-19 guidelines.  

The application has been developed by Professor Mohammed Jeebhay, head of Occupational Medicine at UCT, and Professor Rajen Naidoo, head of Occupational and Environmental Health at UKZN’s School of Nursing and Public Health. Jeebhay and Naidoo are occupational medicine specialists and have been examining the impact of COVID-19 on the public and private sector workforce. Together, the duo develops strategies to mitigate the risks the pandemic poses at various levels.

 

“It is critical that essential workers … are timeously identified, screened, tested and diagnosed.”

Jeebhay and Naidoo also serve as technical advisers to the National Department of Health’s COVID-19 Occupational Health and Safety Workstream, which addresses the myriad issues related to the health of the country’s workforce.

“It is critical that essential workers such as health workers at the frontline of the COVID-19 pandemic and many other key sectors are timeously identified, screened, tested and diagnosed with COVID-19,” Jeebhay said.

“This means that their condition can be managed appropriately so that they can return to work when they are well enough to do so.”

A simple tool

According to Jeebhay, the application is user-friendly, and the questionnaire takes just a minute to complete. The system also allows users to complete more than one questionnaire in a working day should their condition change, and obviates the need for any paperwork.  

The app produces daily reports on employees’ health and well-being and can be adapted in line with organisations’ individual needs. 

While developing the application, Jeebhay explained that UCT and UKZN also partnered with non-profit organisation Mobenzi, a digital platform that helps organisations digitise data collection. Mobenzi provides employers with the back-end support to access employees’ information, contributing to workforce preservation strategies.

“There was great need to develop a simple, easy-to-use tool that would assist with screening and monitoring symptoms daily before employees enter the workplace, as well as provide instant feedback to the organisation’s health professionals managing employees,” Jeebhay said.

Protecting the workforce

As COVID-19 continues to grip the country and the world, Jeebhay said academics, clinicians and epidemiologists in occupational medicine have three priorities:

  • to protect frontline health workers in the field from COVID-19 infection
  • to better understand the trends among all categories of employees as they move from asymptomatic to having COVID-19 symptoms
  • to understand the individual, behavioural and workplace risk factors that increase the risk of mild to severe forms of the disease and other outcomes, including chronic diseases, and develop risk mitigation strategies.

 

“The COVID-19 Workplace Medical Passport is intuitive and even allows employees to assess themselves while on duty.”

While the application is geared towards health workers in the public and private sectors, Jeebhay said small- and medium-sized enterprises in the private sector have also taken an interest in the tool. The app is free to use for businesses with fewer than 500 employees.

“The COVID-19 Workplace Medical Passport is intuitive and even allows employees to assess themselves while on duty. This safeguards other staff as well as visitors and clients,” he said. 

Tried and tested

UKZN medical students have already piloted the app, Jeebhay added. Staff and students at Durban University of Technology are next in line to further test its usefulness once campus reopens in a phased approach.

During the pilot phase, Jeebhay said respondents also suggested that the app be translated into isiZulu. This is being looked at.

“UCT’s mission to address societal challenges requires inter-disciplinary and inter-institutional collaboration, which the COVID-19 pandemic has made ever so apparent,” he said.  

“This collaboration demonstrates that we can combine our expertise, together with our experience in different contexts, to develop a tool that is responsive and can be applied in different contexts in the country.”


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UCT’s response to COVID-19

COVID-19 is a global pandemic that caused President Cyril Ramaphosa to declare a national disaster in South Africa on 15 March 2020 and to implement a national lockdown from 26 March 2020. UCT is taking the threat of infection in our university community extremely seriously, and this page will be updated with the latest COVID-19 information. Please note that the information on this page is subject to change depending on current lockdown regulations.

Minister of Health, Dr Joe Phaahla, has in June 2022 repealed some of South Africa’s remaining COVID-19 regulations: namely, sections 16A, 16B and 16C of the Regulations Relating to the Surveillance and the Control of Notifiable Medical Conditions under the National Health Act. We are now no longer required to wear masks or limit gatherings. Venue restrictions and checks for travellers coming into South Africa have now also been removed.

In July 2022, the University of Cape Town (UCT) revised its approach to managing the COVID-19 pandemic on UCT campuses in 2022.
Read the latest document available on the UCT policies web page.

 

Campus communications

 
2022

Adjusting to our new environment 16:50, 23 June 2022
VC Open Lecture and other updates 17:04, 13 April 2022
Feedback from UCT Council meeting of 12 March 2022 09:45, 18 March 2022
UCT Council
March 2022 graduation celebration 16:45, 8 March 2022
Report on the meeting of UCT Council of 21 February 2022 19:30, 21 February 2022
UCT Council
COVID-19 management 2022 11:55, 14 February 2022
Return to campus arrangements 2022 11:15, 4 February 2022

UCT Community of Hope Vaccination Centre

On Wednesday, 20 July, staff from the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Faculty of Health Sciences came together with representatives from the Western Cape Government at the UCT Community of Hope Vaccination Centre at Forest Hill Residence to acknowledge the centre’s significance in the fight against COVID-19 and to thank its staff for their contributions. The centre opened on 1 September 2021 with the aim of providing quality vaccination services to UCT staff, students and the nearby communities, as well as to create an opportunity for medical students from the Faculty of Health Sciences to gain practical public health skills. The vaccination centre ceased operations on Friday, 29 July 2022.

With the closure of the UCT Community of Hope Vaccination Centre, if you still require access to a COVID-19 vaccination site please visit the CovidComms SA website to find an alternative.

 

“After almost a year of operation, the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Community of Hope Vaccination Centre, located at the Forest Hill residence complex in Mowbray, will close on Friday, 29 July 2022. I am extremely grateful and proud of all staff, students and everyone involved in this important project.”
– Vice-Chancellor Prof Mamokgethi Phakeng

With the closure of the UCT Community of Hope Vaccination Centre, if you still require access to a COVID-19 vaccination site please visit the CovidComms SA website to find an alternative.


Thank You UCT Community

Frequently asked questions

 

Global Citizen Asks: Are COVID-19 Vaccines Safe & Effective?

UCT’s Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine (IDM) collaborated with Global Citizen, speaking to trusted experts to dispel vaccine misinformation.



If you have further questions about the COVID-19 vaccine check out the FAQ produced by the Desmond Tutu Health Foundation (DTHF). The DTHF has developed a dedicated chat function where you can ask your vaccine-related questions on the bottom right hand corner of the website.

IDM YouTube channel | IDM website
 

 

“As a contact university, we look forward to readjusting our undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in 2023 as the COVID-19 regulations have been repealed.”
– Prof Harsha Kathard, Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Teaching and Learning

We are continuing to monitor the situation and we will be updating the UCT community regularly – as and when there are further updates. If you are concerned or need more information, students can contact the Student Wellness Service on 021 650 5620 or 021 650 1271 (after hours), while staff can contact 021 650 5685.

 

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