SANDF boosts Gauteng’s health system to withstand Covid-19 third wave

Gauteng health MEC Dr Nomathemba Mokgethi assured the public that healthcare workers and the department remained committed to confront the third wave “in spite of the system operating under increased pressure due to the rise in Covid-19 cases”.

“The province is still able to cope with the pressure at this stage.”

She said the department was further increasing personnel to its 5 521 Covid-19 posts filled as of June 1.

“Our system might be under pressure, but we still have the will and capacity to cope with the demand.

“We are adding more healthcare personnel to make sure more available beds are fully functional,” Mokgethi said.

Mokgethi further pointed out, that due to Gauteng having adopted a “risk-adjusted and demand informed strategy”, it was able to optimise its response to the third wave and the pandemic in general.

“We have dedicated Covid-19 functional beds across the province supported by a live electronic Covid-19 bed management dashboard which we use to monitor the utilisation of beds across the province.

“In addition to the newly built infrastructure such as Chris Hani Baragwanath academic hospital, Jubilee and Bronkhorstspruit hospitals and the repurposed Tshwane district hospital, wards and beds in other facilities are always repurposed based on the demands of the pandemic at any given time.”

She said the department had also activated resurgence plans across its five districts to minimise the impact of the Covid-19 third wave.

“These plans included, intensified screening and testing activities in communities with contacts followed-up appropriately.

“There is also collaborative work led by other government agencies to improve law enforcement in various settings to ensure compliance to Covid-19 protocols in line with the national lockdown alert Level 3.”

She said further, the Gauteng province had ramped up its vaccination programme by ensuring more sites were opened up.

The province currently has 137 active sites (89 public and 48 private) with eight new sites added.

Mokgethi said there were plans to increase capacity and to ensure more sites operated over the weekend.

“All public vaccination sites in Gauteng accept walk-ins for those who are 60 years and above, whether people are registered on the EVDS or not. All people will be assisted with registration and will be vaccinated, even those who are registered and waiting for SMSes.”

Mokgethi reiterated the call for compliance to non-pharmaceutical measures on wearing a mask, keeping a safe physical distance and washing hands regularly or using a hand sanitiser and avoiding any form of gathering that provides the virus with an opportunity to spread.

“There is no doubt that we are seeing widespread transmission of Covid-19 infections in all our communities. For the first time on Wednesday, last week, Gauteng recorded 7 859 new infections which surpassed the first and second wave daily infections,” Mokgethi said.

She said the war against Covid-19 would only be won when everyone acknowledged the power to stop the spread of the virus was if every individual played their part.

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