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COVID-19: Joining Forces

News
05 April 2020
Protecting all frontline members, including our paramedics, nurses and doctors, is of utmost importance.
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The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) is a non-profit and Public Beneficiary Organization (PBO) that provides essential emergency medical and rescue services to the community of Centurion, free of charge.

Our volunteer medics, doctors, sisters and first responders are responding to all kinds of emergency situations to assist the sick and injured. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, we are assisting the community and local emergency services by any means possible.

During this time, we take extreme precautionary measures to protect our volunteers and other emergency services personnel against COVID-19 by using adequate personal protective equipment such as face masks, face shields, aprons, hand sanitiser and regularly cleaning equipment and vehicles. In the event of patient treatment, screening of patients by means of in-depth history-taking and monitoring for any relevant signs and symptoms relating to the COVID-19 virus is performed.

Educating the general public and raising awareness about COVID-19 is an essential part of our daily operations. Educating people on the precautionary measures and the prevention of spreading COVID-19 is the main objective. Working closely with all the local emergency services and other healthcare institutions to promote COVID-19 awareness also plays an integral part of our essential duties.

Addictive Manufacturing Solutions (Pty) Ltd has launched a brilliant initiative to help healthcare members working on the frontline in the current international pandemic. They are currently sponsoring 3D-printed face masks and face shields to our frontline healthcare members. The reason for the great initiative is that there is a huge shortage of personal protective equipment and other medical supplies nationally due to panic buying by the general public and industries.

Our CERT team is assisting Addictive Manufacturing Solutions to refine the design of the mask and distribute the items to all local emergency services including the police, metro police, fire department and various other local private services.

Protecting all frontline members, including our paramedics, nurses and doctors, is of utmost importance. Being an emergency medical service ourselves, CERT understands the seriousness of the pandemic and the drastic impact it has on our fellow healthcare and emergency workers.

Our volunteers are readily available in these difficult times to offer support to any person in an emergency situation and to support all local emergency services and health care institutions in the fight against COVID-19.

We wish to thank all medical, fire andย  rescue, police and other essential personnel that are on the frontline. These members are selflessly putting their lives at risk in fighting in this war and sacrificing much-needed family time.

Written by Ruan Heyns Chief Executive Officer at CERT