Determining compliance with the COVID-19 daily symptom monitoring tool used to identify suspected COVID-19 workers of the military health support formation employees of the South African national defence force

Introduction: the COVID-19 pandemic had prompted governments in many countries to enact laws and policies to combat the spread of COVID-19 at work. The DEL required every worker to be screened when they arrived at work. Screening methods included self-reporting symptoms using a symptom monitoring tool. This study aimed to determine compliance with the symptom monitoring tool by assessing the knowledge, attitude, and practice of the MHSF employees. Methods: a cross-sectional questionnaire was administered to the employees. Information related to demographic, COVID-19 exposure, knowledge of COVID-19 and the symptom monitoring tool, attitude towards the symptom monitoring tool and practices towards COVID-19 and the symptom monitoring tool was collected. Results: a total of 90 participants participated in the study. The majority (N=45; 50%) of respondents were aged between 30 and 39 years old, with more female (N=50) than male (N=40) participants. The majority (N=51; 56.7%) only had grade 12 as the highest level of education. There were 25% (N=10) of males and 20% (N=10) of females who contracted COVID-19. The relationship between the COVID-19 positive cases and the symptom monitoring tool identifying symptoms had a strong negative correlation (-0.932). Respondent's knowledge of COVID-19 and the symptom monitoring tool was moderate (72.4%), with the attitude to the symptom monitoring tool being moderate (63.3%) as well. However, the practices of the COVID-19 guidelines and the symptom monitoring tool were good (93.3%).

Using pollution indices to develop a risk classification tool for gold mining contaminated soils.

The presence of potentially toxic elements (PTEs) in soil and plants is a risk factor to human well-being and the environment. Soil and leaves from a traditional medicinal plant, Vachellia karroo, known as the sweet thorn plant, were assessed to determine the extent of pollution by PTEs from gold mine tailings in a case study area of Matjhabeng Local Municipality, South Africa. A risk classification tool was developed using the different indicators of pollution quantified to describe the pollution risk at each sampling site. High concentrations of copper, cadmium, lead, nickel, and zinc were measured in the soil, which exceeded the maximum permissible soil quality limits. The enrichment factor and geoaccumulation index results also confirmed heavy soil pollution by copper, nickel, and zinc, with exceptionally heavy pollution by cadmium and selenium. The PTEs in the soil were in an exchangeable form, with the sweet thorn plant accumulating lead and selenium at toxic levels, which poses a risk to the health of the local people as the plant is used for medicinal purposes. The overall pollution risk classification tool of the sampling sites showed that 17% were high-risk areas, 53% were moderate-risk areas, and 20% of the sites were low-risk areas.