Ekurhuleni launches ward war rooms to fight Covid-19 in highly infected areas
Wards in Thembisa and Kathorus have been identified as hot spots
The City of Ekurhuleni has launched ward-based war rooms in its fight against coronavirus infections in the area.
According to a statement issued by the legislature in the City, highly affected wards at the moment are in Thembisa and Kathorus.
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As the City has been identified as a hot spot area in Gauteng, a tactical response was required to address immediate challenges faced by communities and to ensure oversight for service delivery through a stakeholder-based approach.
The constant national increase in Covid-19 infections has necessitated municipalities to look beyond the conventional methods of service delivery to secure the livelihood of citizens during this pandemic. The ward-based service delivery approach will assist in managing infections by closing in on highly infected regions and wards, according to the statement.
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The war rooms were launched on Monday. These local structures will facilitate the new service delivery approach. The composition of the war rooms is in line with the six pillars of ward-based service delivery, which include comprehensive health response, economic response, law enforcement, and compliance, food security, social mobilisation, and state capacity and adaptability.
Ward and PR councillors will lead and chair these structures, which will report to the District Command Council. These structures are in the process of being established in all Gauteng municipalities in line with the provincial strategy.
The war rooms will operate in line with level 3 risk-adjusted regulations with the objective to localise Covid-19 response. The targeted regions are the north (which includes Kempton Park) and south regions. The affected wards are in the Thembisa and Kathorus areas.
The National Department of Health has indicated that the country has not reached its peak infection level but has explained that the unprecedented increase in daily infections is due to a relaxation of lockdown regulations.
It is critical for municipalities to work closely with highly affected communities and provincial governments to slow down the rate of infection, especially in hot spot areas.
