KZN steels itself for Covid-19 spike as more businesses reopen

KwaZulu-Natal is preparing for a spike in Covid-19 cases as more businesses reopen this week.

Premier Sihle Zikalala outlined the province’s state of readiness and released the latest statistics today (Sunday).

Restaurants are now open for sit-down meals, while licensed accommodation, conferences and business meetings, cinemas, theatres, casinos and personal care services such as hairdressers and beauty services have received the green light to open for business.

Also allowed are non-contact sport such as golf, tennis and cricket.

Zikalala said it is estimated that the KZN economy lost more than R30-billion between April and June.

‘A rough estimate also indicates that we lost more than than 30 000 jobs in the formal and informal sectors during this time.’

He said while the lockdown regulations have been relaxed in these sectors, government would continuously monitor the situation to ensure that all maintained the required safety protocols.

Latest statistics

KZN recorded 1 043 new cases in the last seven days (5% of the national total), but on Saturday alone 258 cases were confirmed.

Three deaths were recorded in eThekwini.

Fifty-seven per cent of Saturday’s 258 new cases were listed in eThekwini, followed by uMgungundlovu (16%) and Ilembe (5%).

Overall, eThekwini and Ilembe continue to contribute 75% of the total cases in KZN, but in the last 10 days the uMgungundlovu district has reported more daily cases than Ilembe.

‘This week we surpassed the 4 000 mark, which is concerning,’ said Zikalala.

‘We now have 4 806 confirmed cases, 2 527 recoveries and have had 84 fatalities.’

District breakdown of positive cases

eThekwini: 2 796

Ilembe: 796

uMgungundlovu: 454

uThukela: 170

Ugu: 161

King Cetshwayo: 126

uMkhanyakude: 99

Amajuba: 52

uMzinyathi: 56

Zululand: 25

Harry Gwala: 19

Unallocated: 53

Total: 4 806

Schools with Covid-19

Zikalala said that since the reopening of schools two weeks ago, more than 70 notifications of positive cases had been submitted by local schools.

Teachers accounted for 57 cases, with 13 pupils, a food handler, security guard and an office worker also found to be infected.

Breakdown of reported cases at schools

Amajuba: 2 teachers, 1 pupil

eThekwini: 13 teachers, 6 pupils

Ilembe: 3 teachers

uMgungundlovu: 15 teachers, 1 pupil, 1 food handler and 1 security guard

Harry Gwala: 6 teachers, 1 pupil

uThukela: 4 teachers, 2 pupils

Ugu: 5 teachers, 1 pupil

uMzinyathi: 4 teachers

uMkhanyakude: 3 teachers

King Cetshwayo: 2 pupils

Zululand: 1 teacher, 1 office worker

Total: 73

Preparing for the peak

Zikalala said public and private hospitals have been mobilised.

‘A central database has been established and is updated regularly in terms of available beds,’ he said.

‘The department has also established clinics throughout the province to assist with effective screening.

‘All district hospitals will be capacitated to provide rapid response emergency ventilation units.’