Nyakallo Tefu
Gauteng Premier David Makhura has called on residents to take responsibility and assist government in the fight against the coronavirus outbreak.
This comes after the Gauteng Provincial Command Council reported a sharp increase of coronavirus infections in the townships.
The council said there are signs of emerging COVID-19 hotspots in townships such as Soweto, Orange Farm, Alexandra, Kathorus, KwaThema, Tembisa, Ivory Park Soshanguve, Ennerdale and Vanderbjil Park.
“In the early stages of the pandemic outbreak there were very few known cases in townships and informal settlements, but there are now signs of an increase in townships”, said Makhura.
Giving an update on the coronavirus situation on Thursday, Makhura urged communities to play an active role in curbing the spread.
“Government can’t stop the spread. People can stop the spread”, said Makhura.
Gauteng remains one of the epicentres of the virus, contributing over 2 000 confirmed cases to the more than 12 000 cases in South Africa.
The province has also seen a recovery rate of over 1000 in all the regions.
In the past 7 days, the province has seen an increase of COVID-19 cases of up to 354, but on the positive side, said Makhura, the province also recorded a 13% increase in recovery rates from 61% to 74%.
Makhura said the province has also seen a decrease in active cases by 13%, from 38% to 28%.
He reported, however, that the death rate has increased from 0,9% to 1.1%.
The province has now conducted over 3 million screenings in communities, hospitals and PHC facilities including over 100 000 tests.
As the province finds ways to deal with the pandemic, it has added a Novel Coronalvirus (COVID-19) feature on to its APP called Mpilo: Healthcare in Your Hand, which was officially launched in 2019.
This Mpilo app was launched to empower residents with healthcare-related information.
It will also assist with contact tracing.
The app currently has a self-screening feature, but additional features will be added to improve the efficiency of the collection of daily information of confirmed contacts in the province.
In terms of beds for the province, Makhura said 8301 beds have so far been secured in both private and public hospitals.
He said the province has secured 5251 adult general beds for private hospitals and 977 for public, 805 paediatric beds for private and 126 for public hospitals.
In addition, 749 beds for Intensive Care Units have been secured for private hospitals, while 393 have been allocated to public hospitals.
Another priority for the province is the provision of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).
In total so far, the province has 11 004 334 million stock on hand, which includes body PPE, Environment PPE, Face PPE, Hand PPE, and Respiratory PPE.
Makhura said the province is still waiting for stock amounting to R68 007 500 million.
“Based on the current patient load we have adequate PPE in stock. We continue to order more stock for the next phases of the pandemic”, said Makhura.
He reiterated that surgical and N95 masks must be reserved for use only by frontline healthcare workers.
