MASERU - Following news that broke out last week Thursday that a U-save supermarket staffer had tested positive for Covid-19, the Ministry of Health has warned supermarkets and other companies to adhere the rules and practice regular cleaning and disinfection at their premises.

…supermarkets must clean and disinfect regularly without fail

On Thursday last week, U-save supermarket at Maseru uptown, a few metres from Sefika High School, caused panic among hundreds of customers after it emerged that one of its employee had tested positive for Covid-19. The panic among customers was also due to the fact that the shop had failed to deal with the matter professionally as business continued as usual.

The shop is known to attract a lot of customers during month end and in a few weeks that follow. Reports state that no cleaning and disinfection were done after the Covid-19 case was reported, causing further panic among employees and customers.

The Ministry of Health, however has since picked up the matter and dealt with it accordingly. While the cleaning and disinfection were eventually done, the ministry discovered that they were not done as regularly as they were supposed to be. That means both employees of the shop  and customers could easily be infected by the pandemic.

“We received the news last week and I am pleased to announce that our team was able to deal with the situation. Risk assessment was conducted as well as cleaning and disinfection.

“But during these processes some gaps were identified, whereby we found out that the company was not adhering to the frequent cleaning and disinfection of high touch surfaces in the shop. So the management of the company was strongly advised to strictly implement all these routine precautions in order to stay safe,” said Tebello Kolobe, the Senior Health Inspector at the Ministry of Health.

Kolobe said in an interview with Metro that these precautions are the pillars of Covid-19 prevention.She went on to urge companies to practice all the precautionary measures during this period as the country continue with the fight against Covid-19 pandemic. “This is critical because, for instance, an employee may test positive today and then the company subsequently disinfect the place. Shortly after that another employee tests positive again. So, what we want to instill  in people and organisations is that regular cleanings and disinfections are mandatory,” she emphasised.