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Gauteng to get intervention team to help COVID-19 fight: Kubayi-Ngubane

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Acting Minister of Health Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane says an intervention team will be sent to Gauteng to help with the rising COVID-19 numbers in the province.

She was addressing the media during a vaccination site visit to the Chris Hani-Baragwanath Academic hospital in Soweto.

Acting Minister visits Chris Hani-Baragwanath hospital:

She says many people are not observing the COVID-19 protocols. Kubayi-Ngubane says non-compliance from the public increases pressure on the health system such as hospitals.

“When you look at the past three days,  you would see that the numbers are reflected in Gauteng are a worry and there are areas in terms of specifically Johannesburg where we need to make a serious intervention in terms of that. We will be able to send an intervention team into Gauteng that will assist us with the human capital to support the province in managing the pandemic. We are paying attention to the capacity of the province in terms of hospital beds.”

Gauteng experiencing dramatic increase in hospital admissions

Gauteng Premier David Makhura says the province has experienced a dramatic increase in hospital admissions. He says there is also an increase in people succumbing to COVID-19-related complications.

Makhura says the test positivity rate is sitting at 24 percent. He says there’s no part of the province that is safe. Makhura was addressing the media during a vaccination site visit together with the acting Minister of Health.

“Level 2 as we have it now is not having a sufficient impact. People are going as if we really, really not in the middle of a raging pandemic. At this point, we usually increase existing bed capacity and extra bed capacity. The reports we have been getting from the private sector colleagues is that the system is under pressure. Extremely under pressure at the moment in the private sector and that pressure is now shifting to the public health system. We can feel that pressure based on the hospital admissions.”

Vaccination centre to operate on weekends

Kubayi-Ngubane says the Chris Hani-Baragwanath Academic hospital is the first vaccination centre that will now operate on weekends. She says this follows a public outcry that the centres are only operating during the week.

“Many of our citizens have been saying to us vaccine centres are only opened during the week we do not have sites that are opened over the weekend and we are showcasing the first site to be operational on a weekend which is this one here. For our vaccine roll out, we do believe that this is a massive step towards assisting us increasing the numbers of the vaccinations of our population, which is 60 plus together with our healthcare workers.”

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