Eastern Cape set to overtake Gauteng with second highest Covid-19 infections – DA

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Eastern Cape says the province  is projected to overtake Gauteng with the second-highest confirmed cases of Covid-19 infections in the country.

The DA’s regional shadow MEC for health Jane Cowley said in a statement on Friday that is was it surprising as the province already has the highest rate of infections in prisons, and the second-highest rate of cases, recoveries and deaths per million people nationally.

Cowley said: “The disease is spreading rapidly across the province, and the department of health does not have the capacity to do effective tracking, tracing, and implementing containment measures to slow the spread.”

The Eastern Cape currently has the third-highest Covid-19 cases behind Gauteng which has 2,453. Cowley said the province’s testing backlogs need to be eradicated and that tracking and tracing need to be ramped up.

“There are currently thousands of outstanding test results, per district, across the province. These people, who could be infected but be asymptomatic, are going about their daily business while waiting to hear their results, instead of self-isolating.”

She said despite the identification of hotspots, the health department does not have enough capacity to send teams to immediately screen and test close contacts of those infected by the virus.

“A delay of even one day can result in greater transmissions, which should be prevented at all costs.”

Chris Hani and OR Tambo districts have been identified by the council for scientific and industrial Research (CSIR) as high-risk areas because of their high population density, many live with pre-existing health conditions and there is a high potential for transmission.

“These three factors could result in the Chris Hani and OR Tambo districts becoming superclusters and negate all efforts to flatten the curve and reduce transmissions, both in those districts and across the province.

“I have once again written to the MEC for health Sindiswa Gomba to appeal to her to ensure that the test result backlog is eliminated as a matter of extreme urgency, in order that accurate and relevant data is harvested,” the shadow minister said.

(Compiled by Sandisiwe Mbhele)

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