Eastern Cape hospitals filling up as second Covid-19 wave looms
It is widely expected that the severity of the resurgence should be less deadly than the initial surge of cases, but it remains unclear whether the outbreaks will be controlled in time.
EFF Ward 89 Chairperson Keketso Hollo sits in one of the beds in a fever tent for patients under investigation for COVID – 19 at Tembisa Tertiary Hospital on the East Rand, Johannesburg, 14 July 2020, during the visit to the hospital by EFF Gauteng legislature and parliament members. Tembisa has so far reported 40 deaths of COVID – 19 to date. Picture: Nigel Sibanda
The number of cases and hospitalisations as a result of Covid-19 in the Eastern Cape are seeing a resurgence after weeks of ongoing, but slow, transmission.
Official, reported data shows that in the month of October the province started seeing an upward trend in the number of cases and hospital admissions and early indications are clear that a long-warned “second wave” has arrived in the province.
It is widely expected that the severity of the resurgence should be less deadly than the initial surge of cases, but it remains unclear whether the outbreaks will be controlled in time.
As of Thursday, 710 people were admitted to 98 hospitals (public and private) in the province. This was the highest number of concurrent admissions the province had seen to date, according to available data.
Fifty-two of those people were on a ventilator and 45 were in ICU.
This, in comparison to the 484 people admitted last Friday, 30 October.
According to data reported by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), a total of 13 101 people had been admitted to a hospital in the province since the start of the local coronavirus epidemic.
3 471 of those patients died, while 8 844 were discharged.
The province reported a total of 3 813 Covid-19 deaths, and 90 919 recoveries.
News24 understands the majority of the new admissions are in hospitals in Nelson Mandela Bay and Buffalo City, including private and public hospitals. The capacity of these hospitals to handle the number of patients is unclear.
In July, Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane said the province’s hospitals were “overwhelmed” and called for help from military doctors.
On Thursday, the national Department of Health reported 758 new Covid-19 cases – the highest single day case increase in the province since July.
The number of tests being conducted daily however, is unclear, as the department does not report daily testing totals by province.
Delays in the processing of test results and further delays in reporting means the official, reported data may lag by anywhere between five to 10 days.
It is therefore likely that the actual situation in the Eastern Cape, particularly in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro and Buffalo City, may be worse or improved from the picture presented by the reported data.
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