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Healthcare workers in Gauteng welcome the alcohol ban

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Healthcare workers in Gauteng have welcomed the ban on the sale of alcohol, saying there is already less pressure on staff and resources.

This emerged as the Gauteng MEC of Health Nomathemba Mokgethi engaged with staff at Soweto’s Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital.

She was visiting the hospital to check the facility’s state of readiness ahead of the expected influx of people at the end of the holidays.

Hospital staff told Mokgethi that since midnight, the emergency room has had only a handful of trauma patients, a fraction of the normal number of people who stream through their doors during the festive season each day.

In this video below, Gauteng Health MEC visits Bara Hospital:

The remarks of the healthcare workers and those of managers from other facilities in the province boosted the MEC’s confidence in the fight against the surge in infections.

The MEC says that 246 additional staff members will start work at Bara in January, which will also help ease the burden on staff.

About 139 patients are currently admitted to the hospital for treatment, with 10 on ventilators.

Winde also chuffed over alcohol sales ban

Meanwhile Western Cape Premier, Alan Winde, says the alcohol ban announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa last night, will assist in making more beds available for COVID-19 patients because it should result in fewer trauma patients arriving at hospitals.

Alcohol abuse is considered one of the main reasons that people end up at trauma units.

Winde was speaking during a virtual media briefing on COVID-19. He says they remain opposed to the closure of outdoor spaces such as beaches and parks.

“The data shows us in an equivalent environment where you have people indoors versus outdoors you are 18 times more likely to contract or spread the virus of course that was something that we argued against that’s why I am saying this 14 days we could not get everything.”

 

 

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