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- Covid-19 cases along the Garden Route in the Western Cape continue to increase.
- An urgent call was made for behavior changes, and year-end attacks like the Plett Rage will need medical compliance clearance.
- Health officials are also closely monitoring the potential for Covid-19 to rise again in the Cape metro.
In an attempt to contain a second wave of Covid-19, the Western Cape is forcing potential “superpreader” organizers of large events to now also obtain medical compliance certification.
“We are not playing by the rules,” Western Cape Prime Minister Alan Winde said Thursday in a joint briefing with health authorities on the resurgence.
Winde added that 752 people were now in hospitals after hovering around 500 cases.
Cases on the Garden Route continue to increase.
“We need to reduce the size of those events during the holiday season,” he said. “We need to learn from what is happening in other parts of the world.”
Health MEC Nomafrench Mbombo said awareness campaigns were ongoing, as was the distribution of masks to help instill behavior change.
Preparations are underway to increase the number of hospital beds required, but normal hospital services continue.
READ | The increase in Covid-19 cases is not a ‘resurgence’, the province is on ‘alert and full response’ – Winde
The head of the Department of Health in the Western Cape, Dr. Keith Cloete, said that the increase in numbers along the Garden Route was enough to say that there was a second wave of Covid-19 in the province, starting at the Garden Route.
“The risk now is the Cabo Metro,” he added.
A comparison of the Western Cape Daily Provincial Report shows that on November 11, 2020, 1,977 cases were recorded during the previous seven days. The daily report up to November 18 registered 3,224 new cases in the last seven days, a percentage change of 63%. Most are on the Garden Route.
Bitou, Knysna and George have all shown significant increases in positive tests on the Garden Route, which is a popular vacation destination.
In the past three weeks, public sector hospitalization has also increased.
Cloete urged continuing social distancing, staying home if sick, washing and wearing masks, washing hands, avoiding crowded places and close contact, and confined spaces with poor ventilation.
“We have to make safe decisions, we have to have a safe season and make sure this doesn’t become the season that we escalate Covid into Christmas or New Years,” he said.
Places where new cases were found include Robertson Correctional Services with eight cases, two in a drug rehabilitation center and also in nursing homes along the Garden Route.
In Cape Metro, some students living in University of the Western Cape shelters also tested positive, adding to increased surveillance, and teams were finding cases in the southern suburbs, where positive cases were not as prevalent in the first wave, like like Pinelands.
Cloete said that of the 23% of people who answered a survey question about where they got Covid-19, 42% said they got it at a social event or from a friend while socializing. Seventy-seven percent said they didn’t know.
All weekly readings from 24-hour wastewater treatment plants are being verified, and the data shows an increase in the prevalence of Covid-19 RNA throughout the city of Cape Town and as far away as Atlantis. De Doorns also showed an increase.
Dr. Terence Marshall, the Garden Route Health Cluster Leader, said there has been a dramatic increase in cases and admissions on Garden Route over the past few weeks, as well as the first signs of an increase in deaths.
READ ALSO | Covid-19: Western Cape Issues ‘Hotspot Alert’ for Garden Route
The increases were mainly observed in George, Knysna, Thembalethu, Plettenberg Bay, Pacaltsdorp and Mossel Bay.
At George, most of the cases were in the “Conville complex” of Conville, Parkdene, Rosemore, and Lawaaikamp. In Knysna, there had been a slight increase in Hornlee. The Plettenberg Bay cases were randomized, with one group in Kranshoek; and the Pacaltsdrop and Mossel Bay cases also appeared to be randomly distributed.
Some of these localities have already seen closures of some public facilities.
Most of the new cases were between 21 and 25 and even between 36 and 40 years old and were mainly related to birthday parties, sports clubs, companies and social gatherings.
Cloete blamed the increase on many people who ignored the behavioral changes health authorities have been promoting, including social distancing, not attending large gatherings, and wearing masks and hand washing.
Marshall said many new cases were linked to sporting events and celebrations, although some were “random” and not clearly linked to any particular event or contact.
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