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By Staff Reporter 
22h ago
Cape Town: The Western Cape government has expanded its Covid-19 testing criteria so that anyone symptomatic of the Cape metro and rural regions of the province will be tested.
The new testing criteria now include all people with coronavirus symptoms, preoperative testing of asymptomatic coronavirus patients awaiting surgery, natural deaths that occur at home for people who had coronavirus symptoms, healthcare workers, and people who They previously tested positive but developed new symptoms 90 days after their first test.
As of Thursday, the province registered a total of 111,321 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 104,839 recoveries.
With 11 more deaths yesterday, a total of 4,240 deaths have been registered in the province.
Currently, 531 people are hospitalized, 108 in ICU or high care.
Prime Minister Alan Winde said in July, the Western Cape introduced the risk-adjusted testing strategy on the subway, due to severe testing delays experienced by the National Health Laboratory Service.
This was to ensure that testing focused on those who were most at risk.
“In September, the testing was further expanded to include preoperative (asymptomatic) patients, natural deaths at home, as well as essential symptomatic public sector workers, prisoners, students and school personnel, and workers in workplaces.
“Throughout this period, the labs have faced capacity and therefore we have made the decision to further expand testing,” said Winde.
Non-metropolitan areas were not subject to the risk-adjusted testing strategy and testing for all symptomatic people had continued throughout, he said.
“The expansion of testing criteria in September saw an increase in the number of tests being conducted in the Western Cape, yet the average test positivity rate for the province has remained below 10%.
“This, along with other indicators such as the number of deaths, hospitalizations and oxygen consumption, which is currently 38% of total capacity, provides us with reliable evidence that infections in the province continue to decline,” said Winde.
“The expanded testing criteria will allow us to more accurately track and manage infections in the province.”
Diabetes patients who test positive will be contacted by the province’s VECTOR team, who will monitor their condition and may suggest admission to the hospital for monitoring purposes.
Cape Town also hosted the first Lufthansa flight from Germany since the reopening of international travel yesterday.
“Germany is one of our key source markets for international travel and it is one of our only major source markets that are currently allowed to enter the country under travel restrictions.
“We welcome all travelers on board this flight and wish them a safe stay in our province,” said Winde.
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