Eastern Cape health MEC endangering province with incomplete Covid-19 stats – DA

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Eastern Cape has said that the province’s health MEC, Sindiswa Gomba, is endangering the province by providing members of the provincial legislature with incomplete Covid-19 statistics, despite a commitment to provide daily detailed figures.

The DA’s member of the provincial legislature, Jane Cowley said Gomba “is playing with the lives of the residents” of the province by withholding “vital statistics” on the spread of the coronavirus in the province, “despite numerous requests for these to be released”.

“Accurate, real-time daily statistics are essential if we are to win the fight against Covid-19, as it provides the relevant information needed for health professionals and officials to make informed decisions regarding the management of the fight against the virus.

“Despite commitments to members of the legislature that detailed daily statistics will be provided, this has not been forthcoming.

“Instead, poorly compiled weekly summaries from the six districts joint operations committees (JOC’s) are the only reports that have been made available to work from. Most concerning is that reports from both the Buffalo City Metro and Nelson Mandela Bay Metro, which have both been identified as national hotspots, have yet to be provided.”

Cowley said the data should at least be broken down to municipal level and that hotspots needed to be treated separately.

“It is not surprising that Health Minister Zweli Mkize lambasted the MEC and her department during his visit last week.

“Unfortunately, it appears that this has had little to no impact, and it continues to be no business, as usual, for the MEC and her department, while the province sinks deeper into crisis.”

Cowley said she had written the Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane and Gomba, urgently appealing to them to ensure that the right data was made available, daily, to the members of the legislature and the members of the public.

“This data is crucial to determine which areas will have their lockdowns relaxed, and which will have to continue under stricter controls until the virus is contained.

“False or incomplete data means that the wrong level of lockdowns could be implemented too soon, which could have catastrophic consequences for the province, and which could wipe out any gains that the initial lockdown has had, and the sacrifices that have been made will amount to nothing.”

(Compiled by Makhosandile Zulu)

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