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CAPE TOWN – With the second wave of COVID-19 trailing the Western Cape now, there has been a significant decrease in new cases, hospitalizations and deaths.
Health authorities have noted an increase in trauma cases, most of them alcohol-related.
Whenever alcohol restrictions are relaxed, trauma cases increase, sometimes by more than 100 percent, according to observations by Western Cape health authorities since last year.
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They say that while they are pleased with the drop in COVID-19 infections, they are concerned about the increase in trauma cases and hope that alcohol restrictions over Easter weekend will ease the pressure on trauma units.
Keith Cloete, Western Cape government department head, said, “What we expect is a plateau of those cases during Easter. We do not expect a massive drop in cases during Easter. “
“But we definitely expect an impact and it’s more of a blunt impact in terms of where it would have had high peaks, which would be a little lower and attenuated over Easter.
Cloete said that in the meantime they have been informed of new cases of COVID-19 in the Cape Metro.
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Cloete said, “We are watching the increase in cases on the subway very carefully … to try to understand if these cases are the beginning of a cluster that could trigger larger clusters. Right now, we are watching it closely, we have not detected specific groups, but that does not mean that during this weekend or early next week they cannot become groups, so we are taking it very seriously. “
Cloete says they want to delay the start of the third wave so it doesn’t happen in early April.
“We would like to delay the start of the third wave that we want to delay so that it does not happen in early April.”
“We want to delay it until the end of April and, if possible, take it until May.”
“If we can vaccinate people over the age of sixty and vaccinate a significant number of people before we hit a third wave, we will have a huge impact in terms of the most vulnerable for people with serious illnesses that will require hospitalization and oxygen.” . ,” he said.
