The Eastern Cape has confirmed that a coronavirus patient has been admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Livingstone Hospital in Port Elizabeth. This is the first case at any public hospital in the province.
The 56-year-old woman was in a coma when she arrived at the hospital and after running various tests, it was confirmed that she tested positive for COVID-19.
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Health MEC Sindiswa Gomba says all clinicians, officials and family members who came in contact with the patient will be tracked down and necessary measures will be taken.
“Normally what we would do after running a test, we find out. It’s just that this patient was in a coma so we could not communicate with her. At the time of administrating the test, we would have asked about contact. However, on the basis that this did not happen, we waiting for her to come around before we can ask such questions.”
In the video below, Eastern Cape rolls out COVID-19 testing throughout the province:
Availability of beds
The Eastern Cape government says that it is in the process of making an additional 2 000 beds available for COVID-19 patients. This as the province’s Health Department is working around the clock to contain the reported cases of coronavirus in the province. The aim is to ensure the virus does not drain the provincial health system.
The province had initially set aside 2 500 beds, but with South Africa being on a 21-day lockdown, there was an influx of people that came to the province from other provinces such as Gauteng, which has the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country.
The Head of Provincial Health Department Dr Thobile Mbengashe said on Tuesday the influx might overwhelm the provincial health system.
“The ordinary bed that we have and services should still have to cope with ordinary people that we have and this is particularly important that everyone who becomes ill must have the same chance of being treated like anyone else. And two, when people are very ill, they need to be provided with all the support they need to make them survive the infection.”
In the video below, Eastern Cape considers a provincial lockdown due to COVID-19:
