‘Second wave 10 times worse’ – Front-line workers buckle under strain of Covid-19

Medical workers on the front line have warned they are understaffed and overworked to the point of burnout as the second wave of Covid-19 infections hits the country like a tsunami.

“Things are much worse than what you see in the media. During the first wave, we were uncertain how we would survive the outbreak. The second outbreak is so much worse than the first wave ever was,” a nurse working at a Johannesburg hospital said.

The nurse, who requested anonymity, said another alarming observation was younger patients coming in with Covid-19 were dying within a week. “We had four women for extensive treatment after giving birth last week.

Three of the women, aged between 26 and 28 years, died with no comorbidities.

“Two young men, both admitted healthy and big, are now busy dying.

“The days and nights are short-staffed because the nurses either have Covid-19, or are in quarantine, or in bed, due to burnout.”

The nurse said other challenges include being understaffed.

“At times, we need to nurse three patients by ourselves. Before Covid-19, six nurses would oversee a critical patient.” She said they worked in full personal protective equipment for 11 hours a day and were not allowed to eat or drink anything during that time.

“The plastic gowns are hot and stick to you after five minutes.

“The second wave is 10 times worse than the first wave, there is no doubt about that. And this is just the beginning,” she said.

Dr Leon Odendaal, a general practitioner working at a West Rand hospital, said the private sector had already started preparing for an infection spike similar to the one in July.

“Elective surgeries are being cancelled to free up beds in the ICUs,” he said. He also said doctors were unsure about the severity of the so called second strain of Covid-19 and added children were showing more symptoms of the virus.

“Children are now symptomatic and threaten to be another super spreader of the virus when the schools reopen,” he said. Odendaal said he had seen an increase in Covid-19 cases in recent weeks.

“The total of patients admitted to hospital has tripled, but it is still not as high as in July and August,” Odendaal said. “People are devastated because they don’t get to say goodbye to their loved ones properly. They drop them at the emergency unit and wave goodbye, thinking everything will be okay, not realising they might not ever see them again,” Odendaal said.

On Boxing Day, Heleen Tshibumbu was admitted to the Life Wilgeheuwel Hospital in Johannesburg after suffering from a bad allergic reaction to fish.

“It was ridiculously busy,” Tshibumbu said.

Tshibumbu said there was an emergency section outside where patients were getting oxygen.

Dr Richard Friedland, chief executive officer of Netcare, said in a statement the country was facing an extremely concerning new surge in Covid-19 infections, forcing Netcare to constantly review and evaluate all it was doing.

“We expect this demand to continue in Limpopo and the Western Cape for at least the next two weeks, but to increase in KwaZulu-Natal over the same period,” he said. “We remain extremely concerned about Gauteng, which is already beginning to surge.”

marizkac@citizen.co.za

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