The lockdown and physical distancing strategies imposed to combat COVID-19 have caused seismic shifts at all levels of society. Hospitals have been particularly affected. Healthcare workers (HCW’s) wore PPE during all patient interactions and visitors were prohibited. Life for a patient became lonelier and for those with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) measures were even more severe. HCW’s must treat patients following a biopsychosocial approach and promote communication between patients and loved ones. We implemented a low cost Video Call Visit system at Tygerberg Hospital, Cape Town. In this article we discuss the elements of a successful implementation and potential pitfalls in the context of a pandemic, notably cross-infection and privacy. Rapid but responsible innovation using 21st century tools was required to address the many challenges of the pandemic, including improving the lived experience for patients and families. These should be intended to last after the pandemic has passed.

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South African healthcare workers and COVID-19: A shared responsibility to protect a precious and limited resource To the Editor: Healthcare workers (HCWs) in African countries face high risks of occupational exposure to many pathogens, including tuberculosis, measles, HIV and Ebola. [1,2] The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 poses an arguably greater threat to African HCWs than any other infectious agent to date. Data from countries with established epidemics show that HCWs experience high rates of COVID-19 infection, morbidity and mortality. In the USA, 19% of COVID-19 cases whose occupational status was known were HCWs (9 282/49 000), [3] and >90 000 HCW COVID-19 infections were documented in 30 countries, with 260 deaths in nurses, by early May 2020. [4] In South Africa (SA), on 6 May, Minister Zweli Mkhize reported that 511 HCWs had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 (7% of the national total), with nurses accounting for 53% of total HCW cases. [5] This open-access article is distributed under Creative Commons licence CC-BY-NC 4.0.

This open-access article is distributed under Creative Commons licence CC-BY-NC 4.0.