Health Minister Doctor Zweli Mkhize has expressed satisfaction with the Limpopo Health Department’s COVID-19 response plan.
Mkhize visited the Tshilidzini Hospital, outside Thohoyandou, on Wednesday, as well as the local Thavhani Mall, which has been described as a super spreader location.
The Minister also conducted an oversight visit to the Waterberg district later. Mkhize started his visit to the Tshilidzini Hospital by interacting with a nurse at the hospital’s COVID-19 screening tent, located just at the gate.
On a walkabout with MEC for health, Limpopo Dr Phophi Ramathuba at Tshilidzini Hospital. #LimpopoVisit20Jan pic.twitter.com/Oyun6oY55D
— Zweli Mkhize (@DrZweliMkhize) January 20, 2021
The hospital currently has two confirmed COVID-19 patients, with about 20 who are being treated as they await results.
Capacity issues at the hospital
Doctors at the hospital told Mkhize that they often wait up to five days for test results. Doctor Armando Sanchezcanal from the ICU ward says as numbers keep surging, they need more high care beds.
“We are really under pressure, you can see it. We wish we could have more capacity in terms of high care and ICU beds. We are still forced to mix patients who will need high care or ICU in the general wards because of the shortage of ICU and high care beds. I believe that is still affecting a lot in terms of fatality rate when we cannot take patients who need high care to high care and ICU to ICU.”
Health MEC, Doctor Phophi Ramathuba, says top on their list of challenges they have raised with the minister is securing funds for temporary relief staff.
“We are at a stage wherein a number of people who are infected are getting sick and they are requiring medical attention. So, the support visit by the Minister will at the same time be able to be used as a monitoring tool. And we are hoping that where there are any challenges, we will be able to raise (them) with the Minister so that there can be that intervention. Some of the issues he can raise them with Treasury so that we are able to resolve them and resources are freed for us to deal with COVID-19.”
Confirmed cases declining
Minister Mkhize says he expects Limpopo’s confirmed cases to start declining, as movement into the province that happened over the festive season has started easing.
“We have seen that this is a classical case of festive season driven surge or resurgence and this has actually been linked to the influx of people coming back from wherever they are working, largely Gauteng, and getting into the province which is largely rural.”
He says he is pleased to have seen for himself that the situation is under control.
“The main concern, that we wanted to have a look at, was whether the province was coping because we have seen the case fatality rate increasing and so, we have at least got the report that indicates that at this point, despite the pressure, we have not breached our number of beds that have been provided.”
Mkhize ended his visit to the Vhembe District at the Thavhani Mall.
Meanwhile, the latest figures released showed that the death toll in the province increased by 238, bringing the total to 977.
Below are the latest coronavirus stats in SA:
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