Ten people were admitted to Pretoria’s Unitas hospital for observation on Wednesday after coming into contact with a substance feared to be anthrax at a government department’s city-centre offices.
None of the six men and four women were ill or displayed any symptoms, a spokesperson for the Netcare hospital group said.
They were being kept in isolation as a standard precautionary measure and would probably remain in hospital until the results of forensic tests being conducted on the substance were known.
Police and emergency services personnel were deployed to the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry’s Schoeman Street offices at about 9am after receiving a call from the department’s security staff.
A departmental registry clerk apparently found a dusting of powder on a bursary application received through the mail, and reported it to security.
About 20 members of the emergency services hazardous materials team swept the building and confiscated the package, said spokesperson Johan Pieterse. It was handed over to police for forensic testing.
Officials differed on the number of employees admitted to hospital.
According to Pieterse, nine people — five men and four women — who had been exposed to the substance were isolated immediately. They were scrubbed with a special brush in a decontamination shower erected at the scene, fitted out in new overalls and ferried to Unitas.
Their clothes were sealed in bags for forensic testing.
The eight-floor building, which houses about 200 staff, was evacuated from the ground to the sixth floors. It was declared safe and reopened at about 11am.
Departmental spokesperson Babs Naidoo said all staff, apart from those hospitalised, returned to work after 11am.
He put the number of staff admitted to hospital at seven.
Police spokesperson Inspector Percy Morokane said material collected from the scene had been sent to the national forensics laboratory. The results should be known by Friday. — Sapa