Covid-19: Planned Tshwane field hospital cancelled due to declining infections, hospital admissions

Due to the decline in daily Covid-19 infections and hospital admissions in Gauteng, the planned field hospital at the Tshwane events centre will no longer be built.

This was revealed by Gauteng Department of Health COO Gauteng Lesiba Malotana during the Provincial Command Council’s weekly Covid-19 briefing on Friday.

According to the data from the council, the highest number of hospital admissions was recorded in the middle of July. On 22 July, a total of 7,193 patients were hospitalised for the virus, of which 1 863 of them needed to be on oxygen.

As of 19 August, there were 3,311 patients admitted to public and private hospitals across the province for Covid-19, of which 922 were on oxygen.

Ventilator

In both private and public hospitals, 320 patients were also ventilated.

Daily Covid-19 infections have also consistently dropped since the middle of July. On 9 July, the province recorded its highest daily increase of 6,531 new Covid-19 cases, but by 19 August, 944 cases were recorded.

Malotana said he was of the view that the peak had now passed and the “worst is over”.

Due to the decline – and having been informed of the burden of the virus in how it behaved, as well as inputs by clinicians on the ground – the department had taken a decision not to build or expand on any of the existing field hospitals.

He confirmed that the planned field hospital for Tshwane would no longer happen, but added that the Nasrec centre field hospital would remain in operation, as the expectations and scenarios of a second wave had not yet fully been defined.

As of 20 August, the province had recorded a total of 202,955 confirmed Covid-19 cases, of which 30 512 were still active. The province hads also recorded 3,144 deaths.

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