Eastern Cape authorities were still searching for 29 tuberculosis patients who escaped from the Jose Pearson Hospital in the Nelson Mandela municipality, after twenty returned on Tuesday, the Eastern Cape health department said.
Spokesperson for the department, Siyanda Manana, said on Friday, that the 49 patients — all of whom are multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis patients — had started leaving the hospital in small groups between Wednesday and Friday last week.
The patients escaped through holes they had cut through the hospital’s perimeter fences.
Notices to return — issued by the state attorney’s office -‒ have been delivered to the patients’ homes.
”So far 20 have returned; we are expecting more to come back soon,” said Manana.
Meanwhile, the security company contracted by the health department has been suspended.
”We have now increased the number of guards on duty from seven to 17 per shift,” said Manana, adding that the department hoped that the increased security would prevent further escapes.
Although a party had been organised for the patients to celebrate Christmas with their families at the hospital, Manana said that these plans had now been ”put on hold”.
”We will have to reassess whether we can have such a function at a later stage; at the moment the hospital has had a lot of disruption — we need things to settle down,” he said. – Sapa