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Youth playing on the railroad tracks near Walmer Township, an emerging access point in Port Elizabeth. (Photo: Donna van der Watt)
In two weeks, the number of Covid-19 cases in Nelson Mandela Bay has increased tenfold as authorities pleaded with residents to wear masks and stop socializing. With 75,000 jobs lost in the subway, the city’s business chamber warned that another lockdown would be disastrous.
First published in Daily Maverick 168
With the number of coronavirus cases in Nelson Mandela Bay multiplied by ten in just two weeks and hospitals filling up, the Port Elizabeth chamber of business has warned that another lockdown would be terrible for the largest metro in the Eastern Cape.
It took 14 days of what authorities described as mass disobedience, in October, about a month after the country moved to Level 1 for Nelson Mandela Bay to have a ten-fold increase in coronavirus cases, as a Massive outbreak saw cases increasing, sometimes with as many as 500 cases a day, from 349 on October 19 to 3,092 on November 4.
This week, the city’s Business Chamber raised the alarm that the local economy, which had already cut 75,000 jobs this year, could not afford another shutdown.
At one of the city’s busiest state facilities, Livingstone Hospital, 10 doctors had to deal with the massive admission of patients, and the Health Department admitted this week that they urgently need more hands to fight the current outbreak.
“Nelson Mandela Bay is currently the only place where we are seeing this. There are no other obvious tipping points, ”said Professor Lucille Blumberg, head of the Public Health Surveillance and Response Unit at the National Institute of Communicable Diseases.
This comes as the Minister of the Presidency, Minister Jackson Mthembu, said this week that President Cyril Ramaphosa intended to address the nation on the status of the coronavirus outbreak in the country.
Statistics from the Eastern Cape Health Department show the alarming curve and how the number of active cases on the metro, home to around 1.1 million residents, jumped from 238 on October 11 to 349 on October 19 and later to 1,132 on October 25, 2,362 on November 1, and 3,092 before November 4. On some days, including Thursday, the total active cases in the city increased to 500 cases per day.
“Yes, we are experiencing a resurgence,” Nelson Mandela Bay District Manager Darlene de Vos said Thursday morning. “We have 3,092 active cases.” By Friday morning, the number of cases in the city had risen to 3,584.
The increase in cases has not been seen anywhere else in the metropolitan areas of South Africa. Buffalo City, the other metro in the Eastern Cape, has 247 active cases, according to its municipal board. The province has 4,648 cases.
A spokesman for the Western Cape health department, Mark van den Heever, said that the entire province had seen an increase of 233 cases per day since October 23, but that it fell to 192 cases. The province currently has a positivity rate of 10%.
According to the latest statistics released by the National Department of Health, the total number of active cases in the Eastern Cape is now 3,917, Gauteng has 15,402 active cases and the Free State has 11,997.
Professor Cheryl Cohen of the National Institute of Communicable Diseases said the current outbreak does not constitute a “second wave” of the pandemic.
“This reflects an increase in the number of cases reported from Nelson Mandela Bay compared to what we saw in previous weeks. There has been a continuous transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in the previous weeks and the increase in the number of cases in the last weeks does not qualify it to be called a second wave, ”he said.
Mamela Ndamase, spokeswoman for the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality, confirmed that there were 47 deaths related to Covid-19 complications on the subway in a single month.
“There is very little compliance,” he said. “There is no projection in most buildings, stores, malls and restaurants. Many people don’t use face masks. Social distancing is not maintained. Many installations ignore capacity requirements. People ignore the curfew from midnight to 4 a.m. M. “
She said that compliance inspectors from the Department of Labor, police and metro police had been called in to help enforce Level 1 regulations. “We must emphasize that a tougher lockdown is the last action the metro wants, but it cannot be ruled out if there is continued non-compliance. New cases are monitored daily. “
“There seems to be a blatant disregard for health and safety protocols, especially when it comes to large gatherings, despite the national curfew between midnight and 4 a.m., Nomkhita Mona said.
“Any further disruption caused by an intense second wave would have a devastating impact on livelihoods, health and the overall economy. The business fabric, other sectors more than others, has already suffered significant losses during the last nine months and, as such, could not bear another blow. Between January and June of this year, the city had already registered more than 75,000 lost jobs. As the Business Chamber, we would like to make a call to all companies to strengthen their security protocols to prevent a possible calamity. With the relaxation of measures to alert level 1, we have also observed that certain companies in the service sector no longer follow strict protocols in their facilities. It is essential to highlight the impact of this on the economy. While the business community has to comply at all times, each individual member of society has the same responsibility to stay safe, thus protecting their families and colleagues, ”he added.
Health Department and municipality officials have pleaded with residents to stay home as far away as possible and wear their masks.
With the first signs of the outbreak, with the city having just 349 cases, health spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo warned: “We cannot tie this to a special event. The increase in the numbers is mainly due to a widespread non-compliance with precautionary measures. People are ignoring curfews. In general, this happens due to a total disregard for regulations. “
De Vos said 28% of tests performed on the subway lately had a positive result.
“There is also an increase in the number of minor cases in children, but most cases are still among the economically active population between 20 and 64 years old.”
There are 168 in the field hospital and 475 patients hospitalized due to Covid-19 complications in the three public and private hospitals in the city. Mobile oxygen cylinders were being used because there are so few oxygen supply points.
De Vos said there are currently 76 patients admitted to intensive care units in the metro, eight in the state sector and 68 in the private sector.
“Avoid social gatherings whenever possible. Covid is real and we can only contain further spread if there is a collective commitment to stop the spread. We call on all citizens to cooperate with our community, relying on track and trace equipment and adhere to the referrals for quarantine and isolation, ”added De Vos.
Earlier in the week, Acting Executive Mayor Thsonono Buyeye said the subway’s isolation site, Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, was closed in September because there weren’t enough cases to justify keeping it open.
Health workers who are part of track and trace teams in the city said their jobs are complicated because people lie and often provide false addresses as they did not want people to find out that they had tested positive for the proof.
A mother from Uitenhage, who asked not to be identified “because people behave strangely to you if you have Covid,” said both she and her 18-month-old son were infected.
“My son was a healthy baby, but then he struggled with his breathing. We first thought it was asthma. But then they tested us and it was Covid-19. Luckily all the other members of my family tested negative. It was just me and the baby. I did not have any symptoms. He got very sick. I couldn’t breathe.
“He was in the ICU for two weeks. We were alone in a room for two weeks. I only saw the doctors and nurses. If someone brought us something, they had to hit it and put it on the ground. He almost died one day. Doctors rushed to save him and were moving so fast they forgot to put on his PPE [personal protective equipment] in. They just wanted to save him. Before my son got sick, I thought that children could not get Covid. For two weeks I had to talk to my seven-year-old son on the phone, ”he said. DM168
