Gauteng is putting resources in place to cope with a third wave of COVID-19 infections in the coming months.
Premier David Makhura has also urged residents, churches and travellers to limit gatherings over the Easter holidays to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Makhura says Easter celebrations could trigger a surge in infections. He has appealed to the residents of Gauteng to observe wear their masks and frequently sanitise their hands to minimise the infections. Makhura says his administration is doing all in its power to protect Gauteng’s residents.
“We are preparing for the third wave. We don’t know when but we should be ready. In March last year, this was done by many provinces. We brought in 4 992 COVID-related healthcare workers posts. COVID is going to be around for much longer than expected. We have extended these contracts, 4 992 posts that were created to cope,” he says.
Providing an update on COVID-19, Makhura says the province was not as badly affected by the second wave as other provinces due to residents implementing non-pharmaceutical interventions.
Gauteng has recorded more than 10 000 COVID-19-related deaths since the start of the pandemic last year.
Makhura has also raised concerns on the increase of infections in the Sedibeng region.
“We are not out of the woods we still have lot of people who are hospitalised. The number has come down but we still have this persistent of the disease. I have made an observation on seven day average in the last week we have seen an up tick. The regions where there is an increase we are worried about the region in the south that is Sedibeng,” he says.
Scientists say Gauteng COVID-19 infection numbers are concerning:
Dr Mary Kawonga from the Premier’s Advisory Committee says while the second wave is over, transmission is still continuing. She agrees with the Premier that South Africa is not out of the woods and that non-essential travel should be avoided.
“Apart from variants and re-infection, often when we relax measures and they become less stringent. Often what follows is people’s behaviour starts to change. Gatherings come back, people feel that they are liberated. Now that we are in lockdown level one, just before the long weekend, two weeks later we going to have Easter, family gatherings, religious gatherings. That’s why there is caution about relaxed interventions. Often when we mix people from different households in small gatherings, there is also a risk,” Kawonga says.
Vaccinations
Almost 44 000 healthcare workers have been vaccinated in Gauteng, making it the province with the highest number of vaccinations so far.
Acting Chief Operating Officer at Gauteng Health, Nomsa Mmope, says vaccinations in the province are being administered at six facilities targeting health care workers.
“As Gauteng, out of the 1.2 million people targeted in the first phase, we have 250 000 healthcare workers that we must vaccinate. As at yesterday’s (Thursday) report, we vaccinated 43 915 healthcare workers from the third batch that we received. We received 10 200 and I think by the end of today, all those doses will be completed. We are expected the another batch on the 22nd of March. The uptake is very high, health care workers are very motivated,” Mmope says.
The national Health Department says another batch of Johnson and Johnson vaccines has arrived in South Africa.
