Covid-19 cases reach 1,505, as Mkhize says coronavirus must be defeated at any cost

Addressing the media at Khayelitsha Hospital in Cape Town, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize announced that the number of Covid-19-positive cases have jumped to 1,505, an increase of 43 since yesterday.

Yesterday we reported seven deaths, today is a further two. That brings the total number of deaths to nine,” he added, though he clarified that two of the deaths in KwaZulu-Natal still needed to be confirmed as being due to Covid-19.

One was an 80-year-old male, the other an 80-year-old female. Both appeared to have no significant travel history.

News24 has, however, reported that St Augustine’s Hospital in Durban saw three lives being lost to the virus over the past three days.

About 50,000 tests had been done to date, said Mkhize.

He added that the devastation this virus was known to be able to cause meant that the cost of defeating it was not the most important factor. Whatever money needed to be spent to defeat the virus and save lives would have to be spent.

“The whole world is facing constraints when it comes to personal protective equipment. We are doing everything when it comes to this matter. For now we have enough; we have reached out to other countries for additional support too.”

He said government had identified hot spots where mobile testing would be done from next week and high-priority wards would be identified. The virus being seen in townships had given the outbreak a “new dynamic”, and government would be focusing on densely populated areas.

“On what we have asked the provinces to do, everything has been put in place. When we started we didn’t know that the outbreak would be highest in Gauteng, Western Cape and Free State. This virus is a moving target.

“We have seen the enthusiasm and preparedness by the colleagues. We are on a good course. The key, however, is how we make sure the lockdown works. We need to flatten the curve and ensure that when flu season starts we need to be ready before that time comes.”

The closure of borders and the quarantining of visitors from specific countries had been essential to fighting the spread, he said.

“We have approached the president to request reinforcement from a number of countries such as Cuba and China.

“We had an opportunity to ask fairly pertinent questions for example there are differences between us and them (we have a number of citizens with TB and HIV.”

He said he’d had a very interesting and informative discussion with experts from the World Health Organisation and in Shanghai.

“They took us through the case definition, how they dealt with the testing and manifestation of the virus in patients. They also went into detail on in-patient treatment.

“They indicated that 20% of their patients become serious and of that 5% are admitted to ICU. They also indicated the importance of testing and screening at an early stage.”

He said mapping and tracking of the infection at an early stage would be key. Reactive testing was why the numbers have currently appeared so low, and they in all probability had to be higher. Proactive testing would see an increase.

The government wanted to add more beds to hospitals, said Mkhize, as the government anticipated an increase in the number of patients, although the lockdown regulations had seemingly slowed down the spread.

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