MBOMBELA – This was a sad and gloomy picture drawn by Premier Refilwe Mtshweni-Tsipane as she briefed President Cyril Ramaphosa last Friday. The president visited Mpumalanga to monitor work done in the fight against the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus.
“Preliminary projections estimate 10 to 48 deaths per day in the province by midJuly,” she said.
“Mpumalanga has 347 mortuaries and 33 crematoriums in both the private and public sectors. Cogta in the province
is already in the process of identifying additional land across the region for utilisation as cemeteries.
The province has commenced the process of procuring body bags for the expected increase
in the number of corpses,” continued Mtshweni-Tsipane.
She summed up her briefing with some positive news as she highlighted that her government is working on a number of strategies to help flatten the curve.
“To this effect, we have developed a strategy based on three pillars, which are primary prevention (pre-surge), secondary intervention (peak surge) and post-Covid-19 aftermath (post-surge),” she said.
Mtshweni-Tsipane said the primary prevention seeks to promote health and behavioural change among the provincial communities, while the secondary intervention will thoroughly outline the manner in which the province will manage positive cases and suspected positive cases of Covid-19, especially during the anticipated peak surge.
“We have also established 402 ward-based containment teams under the leadership of ward councillors and thus deploying a ‘wall-to-wall’ strategy across all wards in the province.
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“Furthermore, we have launched the Siyayinqoba Sisonke app in order to relay a single message advocating behavioural change across Mpumalanga,” said Mtshweni-Tsipane.
According to statistics officially released by the Department of Health, the province had 2 664 active positive cases and 22 deaths.
During an exclusive interview with Mpumalanga News, the MEC for Cogta, Mandla Msibi, revealed that he
has instructed municipalities to start looking for vacant land to be turned into mass graveyards, should the need arise.
Msibi also hinted that government’s biggest headache was the people’s behaviour and attitude towards the virus.
“We have a serious problem with compliance. Our people are not complying with the lockdown regulations and risk
being infected. The disease is going to be catastrophic, because we have seen in Europe that it has killed many people, with many more being infected.
“And with the winter season already here and with the people behaving irresponsibly, we believe that this thing is going to kill many people. And this is the reason why we are getting ourselves ready for anything. We need to prepare in advance,” Msibi pointed out.
On Sunday Ramaphosa addressed the nation where he warned that “the storm was coming”.
