Forewarned is forearmed in SA's fight against Covid-19 - Ross Hofmeyr

They are widely seen as the soldiers on the front line and in at least two of the hardest hit countries in Europe and the world, the only line of defence in fighting the deadly Covid-19 pandemic. But what if that line of defence is so compromised they can't do their job? In the UK one in four of the doctors are now sitting at home in self-isolation after they've contracted Covid-19 and globally many doctors and health workers have fallen victim to the disease, most famously the discoverer of the disease in China. Learning from expert colleagues around the world in countries that had the pandemic ahead of us, our health care professionals have been preparing like soldiers preparing for a war to keep SA's citizens and our health care professionals safe. Dr Ross Hofmeyr, an anaesthesiologist at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, who literally stares death in the face when he has to push a tube down the airway of an affected patient, tells Alec Hogg in this riveting interview about the hospital's preparations that the frontline is definitely not them. It is people who need to remember to wash their hands.