KZN PREMIER Sihle Zikalala has voiced his concern as more schools in the province register Covid-19 cluster cases.
This was revealed in a press briefing on Sunday as Zikalala gave feedback on the province’s fight against Covid-19.
KZN has now had more than 1100 Covid-19 cases in 350 schools in the past three weeks.
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“These numbers are increasing daily; and more learners are testing positive. Sadly, the pandemic has claimed the lives of two 12 year-old schoolchildren, as well as a nine-year-old. The Department of Education is intensifying non-pharmaceutical interventions to reduce the spread of the virus in schools. Clusters have also been observed in other congregant settings, such as boarding schools, mental health facilities, centres for the visually impaired and old age homes. We urge those who require assistance where clusters have been observed to seek assistance by contacting the National Institute for Communicable Diseases on toll-free number: 0800 029 999,” he said.
Zikalala added the province had now vaccinated more than two million people.
“We would want to emphasise that, in order to defeat Covid-19, vaccination is the obvious key and most important intervention to save lives. Of course, this must be done in conjunction with non-pharmaceutical prevention measures, such as the wearing of masks, regular hand washing or hand sanitizing and social distancing. We have begun taking a closer look at whether the people who get admitted at our facilities were indeed vaccinated, so that we can establish scientifically how many of them recover, and how many eventually lose their lives.
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“Looking at admissions between the period February 16 – August 14, 2021, we have had 13 119 hospital admissions. It concerns us that, of the total admissions for this period, only 3% or 384 were vaccinated; while 57% or 7523 had unknown vaccination status; and 40% or 5 212 had not been vaccinated. While more data is being collected, and more detailed analysis is still being conducted, which will provide scientific and medical explanations to this; at face value, it does appear that the majority of people in hospital and those who sadly passed away were not vaccinated,” he said.
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