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KwaZulu-Natal Health MEC Nomagugu-Simelane Zulu.
- KwaZulu-Natal says it has enough beds and will only purchase additional beds if they are needed as daily infections rise.
- 4,340 patients have been admitted to both public and private hospitals. Of these, 472 required intensive care services.
- At least 8,723 public health workers in the province, most of whom are nurses, have been infected with Covid-19 since March. Ninety-eight have succumbed to the virus.
The KwaZulu-Natal government says there is sufficient bed capacity in the province and will hire more hotels and hostels if the need arises.
“We are happy with our ability… we are doing well with no problems. We decided not to go out yet and hire hotels en masse.
“Instead, we sit down and see where help is needed, and we do it because we went out to contract facilities previously, only to find that some districts did not need the extra beds. So as soon as a need arises, a contract is signed daily. next, “the Nomagugu Simelane-Zulu Health MEC said on Sunday.
In addition, the province is reusing 540 beds in the eThekwini, iLembe and Harry Gwala regions and commissioning field hospitals for 954 additional beds.
Two hotels have also been contracted in the Ugu and King Cetswayo regions.
KwaZulu-Natal, known as a favorite destination for tourists, recorded 4,714 new infections, bringing the total number to 209,691. Eight and five people succumbed to the virus in the same period.
PPE
On the availability of personal protective equipment (PPE) at Albert Luthuli Hospital, Simelane-Zulu said she received daily reports of PPE stocks, denying that the hospital was experiencing a shortage.
“There seems to be one or two media outlets obsessed with the Albert Luthuli Hospital… there is someone at the hospital who claims there is no PPE. The workers who work there are no different from the rest, there is no special treatment for certain health workers.
“They are all important to the department and are treated with the respect they deserve. There is no problem with PPE, I personally went to check stocks at Albert Luthuli and found the PPE available.”
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Speaking about admitting patients to trauma units, he praised the Level 3 lockdown and liquor sale ban that he said had resulted in lower trauma cases in provincial hospitals compared to previous years.
Simelane-Zulu added that South Africans should be introspective about the destructive nature of alcohol abuse.
“The fact that we don’t currently have many trauma cases shows that alcohol prohibition is helping. Healthcare workers can focus on the work at hand and not on injuries caused by alcohol-related incidents.
“I think it is about time we started to review our relationship with alcohol use.
“Yes, the president banned the sale of alcohol, but is it necessary that every year, the emergency services do everything possible simply because there are car accidents, people have stabbed or shot each other for alcohol abuse? alcohol abuse causes a lot of problems. “
4,340 patients were admitted to both public and private hospitals. Of these, 472 required intensive care services. In particular, private hospitals had more ICU patients than public facilities.
The deadly pandemic has infected 8,723 public sector health workers in KwaZulu-Natal, killing 98 of them.
Most of the affected health workers are nurses.
