The Gauteng government is predicting a surge in COVID-19 infections this festive season. Gauteng Premier David Makhura addressed the media today to outline measures to strengthen the province’s healthcare system.
Makhura has called on Gauteng residents to be more vigilant and to avoid big family gatherings and parties during the festive season.
Gauteng Premier Makhura announces healthcare strengthening measures:
“We are monitoring the COVID-19 cases very very closely but we can see on a seven-day basis every seven days the number of cases reported is increasing. But we want to emphasise that we may not be where the Eastern Cape is. But as it happened with the first surge particularly as we get to December and the beginning of January, this is the news we must communicate to the people of our province is that all indications are that we are going to have a significant increase. But we can do much much better with complying with the health protocols in our province.”
Having assessed the strengths of the current serving MEC’s I have decided to make the following changes: Dr Thembi Mokgethi is the new MEC for Health. She is not new to the sector & her knowledge, experience & qualifications make her a strong candidate to lead the portfolio. pic.twitter.com/q6IXfMt7YJ
— David Makhura (@David_Makhura) December 2, 2020
Western Cape cancels events as cases surge
With COVID-19 infections on the increase in some regions of the Western Cape, government authorities have taken the decision to close public facilities and venues.
George, on the Garden Route and the Kannaland Municipality in the Little Karoo, are among those affected.
The Western Cape government is getting tough on the Garden Route. George is the commercial hub of the region, the second-largest city in the province, and a popular holiday and tourist destination.
It currently has the highest number of active infections in the province.
Public gatherings
With the holiday season approaching, Georgians will not be allowed to hold large public gatherings without prior approval.
“People who want to host large public events with a large number of people need to apply to municipalities for permission and also need stamps of approval from the disaster management entities. At the moment it is the Garden Route primarily where we’ve seen large spikes of COVID-19 infections in recent weeks and we are doing what we can to prevent this, to bring this down,” says Western Cape Local Government spokesperson, James Brent-Styan.
Below are the latest COVID-19 stats:
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