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- Hospital admissions related to Covid-19 have risen from 1,020 on November 26 to 1,253 on December 2 in the Western Cape.
- Most are on the Garden Route and Cape Metro, with cases in Central Karoo, Theewaterskloof and Cape Winelands also on the rise.
- A Beaufort West hospital staff member has died and exhausted healthcare workers are also becoming infected in increasing numbers.
The Western Cape Health Department says Garden Route’s second wave of Covid-19 is surpassing its first peak in terms of admissions, while active cases across the province have risen from 7,793 to 10,442 in the last week. .
Hospital admissions related to covid-19 in the province have increased from 1,020 on November 26 to 1,253 on December 2.
Most are on the Garden Route and Cape Metro, with cases in Central Karoo, Theewaterskloof and Cape Winelands also on the rise.
Healthcare workers are also becoming increasingly infected, and a Beaufort West Hospital staff member is dying.
Health officials are insisting on the message of wearing a mask, washing hands, avoiding gatherings and social distancing, and will provide additional law enforcement capacity to monitor compliance with regulations when necessary.
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s speech to the nation on Thursday night is expected to clarify whether there will be stricter closures and curfews in specific areas, but Prime Minister Alan Winde feels that, if regulations are followed and behaved in It might not be necessary, and the holiday season can continue to prevent businesses from collapsing again.
The Garden Route municipalities are already closing public facilities, with some municipal service offices closing for a deep clean and reopening, similar to the first wave across the country.
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Winde will also ask Ramaphosa to consider introducing “consequences” for people not wearing masks in public, and implored companies to make sure they are Covid compliant to avoid shutdown.
Western Cape Health Department Chief Keith Cloete said that metropolitan and rural hospitals were operating at 79% occupancy and emphasized that it was crucial not to overload the system, so that other services such as psychiatric and maternity care could continue. .
Covid-19 cases and people under investigation for the virus account for 9% of admissions in metropolitan areas and 15% in rural areas.
“These hospitalizations have now increased dramatically, while we are also experiencing the burden of trauma, and alcohol-related trauma places a great burden on the healthcare system and hospitals,” Cloete said.
“When Covid-19 comes up, and we have to build the capacity for Covid, it is at the expense of the other things that the healthcare system keeps busy with,” Cloete said.
He said that behaving responsibly not only prevents additional cases of Covid, but also protects the health system in general and the ability to take care of maternity, psychiatric and surgical cases.
Second wave exceeding the first peak
He said the second wave on the Garden Route was exceeding the first peak.
“The hospitalization data shows a rapid increase at this point and mortality rates are starting to rise.”
The number of active cases in the Western Cape increased from 7,793 on November 26 to 10,442 on December 2.
On November 25, the daily report showed that there were 5,322 new cases of Covid-19 in the previous seven days. This was up to 7,518 new cases in the last seven days to December 2. Of the 1,253 patients with acute Covid-19, 680 were in public hospitals and 573 in private hospitals. There were 227 people in isolation facilities, the majority on the Garden Route.
There were also 209 people in intensive care or intensive care units, receiving critical care with ventilators or high-flow nasal oxygen.
One hundred and two people are at the Brackengate Hospital of Hope in Cape Town, and four people are at the Sonstraal facility in Paarl, which is also treating 18 tuberculosis patients.
“Now we also sadly await the death toll to rise, as was experienced at this point in the ‘first wave,'” Cloete said.
The proportion of positive tests is now 20%, up from 16% a week ago, and the levels are in line with those seen in mid-May.
The reproduction number is at 1.4, which means that each case is causing an average increase of 1.4 in cases. The goal is to get it below 1.
The number of tests has also increased from around 10,000 per week in the public sector and around 10,000 in the private sector, to around 14,000 tests in the public sector in the last week.
Health workers get infected
Positive cases among health workers in September and October was five cases per day for the entire province, but reached a maximum of 38 cases in one day for infected health workers. Hospitals such as Groote Schuur (30) and Groote Schuur (28) had increased staff infections in the five-week period monitored. George Hospital, which is less staffed than large hospitals, has had 26 cases in the last five weeks, followed by Mossel Bay Hospital (20) and Knynsa Hospital (16).
Health MEC Nomafrench Mbombo said that in addition to the increase in Covid-19 hospitalizations, the department would also have to manage higher customary trauma revenues as a result of car accidents that occurred in December.
Launching the Christmas road safety campaign on Thursday, Transport MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela said that 5,445,719 vehicles had entered the province in the 2019/20 festive season and another influx again in December.
“… While this is good news for the Western Cape tourism economy, it will require us to take additional steps to keep our roads safe and contain Covid-19,” he said.
To help prevent accidents and hospitalizations, interventions include forcing long-distance public transport drivers to stop every 200 km to rest, prevent drunk driving, promote pedestrian safety and public transport compliance of Covid regulations.
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The group’s daily briefings are isolating and monitoring problem areas, which included a school gathering of about 500 students for a World AIDS Day event, a toy race, changes to vacation homes, workplace infections and people who work in rural areas who travel in the back of the busy bakkies.
Cape metro wastewater analysis shows a 24% resurgence
Public health specialist Mary-Ann Davies said the Cape Metro sewage analysis also shows virus traces resurgence in all Cape Metro areas at 24%, with the largest increases in Camps Bay, Gordons Bay, Green Point, Kraaifontein and Wildevoelvlei. It has expanded to the Breede Valley and Theewaterskloof area. This is considered a good predictor of the increase in the number of cases on the road.
Davies said the Garden Route cases were often among people who went to a large gathering and then returned home.
Several clusters were identified in long-term care centers in Knysna, and there were clusters in the Bella Vista and Witzenberg vineyard fruit growing and packing areas. The affected locations include the Ceres fruit growing and juice industry.
Awareness programs include cheers.
Cloete said the strategy for recovery and resurgence until there is a vaccine is to change community behavior with the help of law enforcement when necessary, manage groups with continuous outbreak surveillance, expand hospital capacity, maintain services comprehensive services and protect health workers. .
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