S. Africa call centre offers wellness services to support covid-19 patients

A call centre in Johannesburg is providing badly needed wellness services for corporate clients in South Africa. HealthImpact, is a corporate health and wellness company ensuring that corporate workplaces are healthier environments. They also provide suspected coronavirus patients with tests and medical help.

"When we started, you know, there was a lot of confusion, a lot of panic, many people didn't know. But as we're getting along now, now we'll find people are knowledgable, you know, but there are still those people that call in without a clue what to do so we always make sure we educate them, we take time to educate", said Senior Clinical Case Manager at HealthImpact, Zodwa Nyoni.

HealthImpact also offers information and strategies on how to keep workplaces safe and healthier as the Southern African nation is set to begin its vaccination program.They also provide suspected coronavirus patients with tests and medical help.

"Those that are positive now, we give them a call, we tell them the results, and then we also assist with contact tracing. You know, the virus is highly transmittable, so we assist also employees with contact tracing. At the same time, we also do case management, where we call them maybe after 24 hours, 48 hours, to find out how they are doing", Nyoni added.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, the call centre was focused on managing HIV/AIDS and other chronic illnesses. South Africa is due to inoculate the over 1.2 million frontline healthcare workers mid-February after it received the first batch of vaccines on Monday.