North neighbourhoods not identified as Covid-19 hotspots
The Covid-19 hotspot in the city was said to be in the CBD and parts of the west.
The Tshwane metro has confirmed that none of the neighbourhoods in the north of Pretoria have been identified as Covid-19 hotspots.
The only hotspot in Tshwane appeared to be region 3 only.
Tshwane metro spokesperson Selby Bokaba told Rekord the areas that fell under region 3 included the Tshwane CBD and Atteridgeville and several areas in Pretoria West.
“But the main hotspot remains the CBD.”
Bokaba spoke to Rekord as the Tshwane metro announced its plans to intensify screening and testing efforts in the region with the aim of curbing the spread of the deadly virus.
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Earlier this week, the metro launched a 20-day Covid-19 testing and screening station at the Bloed Street mall as part of the effort.
The site was expected to be operational from Tuesday, 11 August from 09:00 until 15:00.
Bokaba said the hope was to “test as many people as possible” during the 20-day period, so those who were positive could be isolated from those who were negative “in a bid to flatten the proverbial curve”.
“We are urging all our residents, not only to go to the Bloed Street mall testing site but to all the sites we have communicated because the problem of Covid-19 is not centred around the CBD only, although it is a hotspot,” he said.
He added that there were other areas across the city’s seven regions where they were experiencing “problems”.
Other sites which the metro launched included the Gomorrah informal settlement, near Hercules on Wednesday, and the WF Nkomo Village mall in Saulsville on Thursday.
Both of the sites were expected to be operational from 09:00 until 13:00.
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Despite the “problems” Bokaba acknowledged, he said the metro had been “doing very well” compared to other metros in the province.
“We have the least number of infections compared to others and it’s because of this approach that has been working so wonderfully.”
He, however, cautioned that although they were “happy” with the progress made, numbers in the city were still increasing.
“This is basically a behavioural problem because some of our residents don’t observe some of the Covid-19 regulations,” Bokaba said.
In the district breakdown of Covid-19 cases released by the provincial health department on Monday, a total number of 40 258 cases were confirmed and 531 deaths:
Region 1: 8 860 cases were confirmed and 5 969 recoveries;
Region 2: 2 897 cases and 1 418 recoveries;
Region 3: 12 469 cases and 9 606 recoveries;
Region 4: 6 388 cases and 3 806 recoveries;
region 5: 858 cases and 345 recoveries;
region 6: 7 659 cases and 4 162 recoveries
region 7: 1 014 cases and 494 recoveries.
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