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The Western Cape Government will use the process of consultation announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa to lobby for the province to move down to level 3 as soon as possible, preferably before the end of May 2020.
“With our healthcare system prepared, it is simply no longer possible to maintain level 4 restrictions anywhere in the Western Cape or South Africa,” Western Cape Premier Alan Winde said.
“The economic crisis caused by these restrictions has resulted in a life-threatening humanitarian disaster that will only worsen in the months ahead.”
The Western Cape has experienced the increase in new COVID-19 cases in South Africa, with 7,220 confirmed cases and 129 deaths.
This growth in infections has caused many people to call for the province to be moved back to level 5, but Winde dismissed this as counter-productive.
He said the new COVID-19 cases and deaths which they are currently seeing are actually coming from the level 5 lockdown.
“We have shown over the last few weeks, under level 5, that infections happen in any place where people congregate,” he said.
I added that the purpose of the level 5 lockdown was to get healthcare systems and medical responses in place to deal with the pandemic.
“Now we have to balance the medical readiness with the humanitarian and economic response,” said Winde.
He said the Western Cape has a hotspot plan, which they have shown to Health Minister Zweli Mkhize, to address areas with COVID-19 outbreaks in the province.
The whole province is, however, not affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. Winde said there are areas where they have not had any cases for two weeks.
He said this allows the Western Cape to open the economy more, and move to alert level 3.
While the Western Cape is in favor of more relaxed regulations, the decision about the alert level is not in their hands. This is done at national government level.
Virus spread expected
Winde said they are closely monitoring infections to ensure the number of COVID-19 cases are on a trajectory which it measures its response against.
The Western Cape is currently doubling the number of confirmed coronavirus cases every eight days, and although this sounds scary, they are prepared for this scenario.
He said everything is on track and they have enough hospital beds and other medical resources to cope with the growth in infections in the province.
We said you cannot remain in lockdown for too long because then the humanitarian and economic impact become too big.
I have dismissed accusations that they are putting economic considerations above the need to “flatten the curve”.
“It is about creating a balance. The whole reason that you kill off your economy in a level 5 lockdown is to get your health response ready – which is exactly what we were doing, ”he said.
He said the most important thing is to not allow the virus to spread beyond their projections, which can lead to an overloaded healthcare system.
“We are not going to stop the virus. Even if you did and island yourself and eradicate the virus the problem is that you remain vulnerable when everything else opens up, ”he said.
He said this is why the Western Cape is creating a balance between slowing the spread of the virus and allowing economic activity to continue.
This means instead of a very strict lockdown which will drag the pandemic out for over two years, it should be managed to allow a balance between limiting infections and allowing economic activity.
Western Cape Premier Alan Winde interview
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