uMgungundlovu District has become KwaZulu-Natal’s death capital, accounting for more 70% of the total Covid-19 deaths in the province on Saturday.
According to statistics released by Premier Sihle Zikalala on Sunday, 66 of the 85 people who died due to Covid-19 on Saturday were from the uMgungundlovu District.
Msunduzi Mayor Mzi Thebolla, who referred The Witness to the provincial cabinet on matters of Covid-19 statistics in Msunduzi and the district, urged residents to adhere to Covid-19 protocols.
“The fact of the matter is that Covid-19 does kill. That is why we are always advising people to adhere to protocols to protect their own lives, those of their family members and those of members of the public at large.”
The high death rate in the district comes as private hospitals struggle to cope with the influx of patients.
As a result, Covid-19 patients with medical aid could soon find themselves in public hospitals as KwaZulu-Natal private facilities refer patients to them.
Briefing the media in Durban on Sunday, Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane-Zulu said: “During the first wave we had an agreement with private hospitals to refer some of the patients from public hospitals to them should we run out of beds. However, the opposite is happening [now].”
With the province recording an average of 5 000 infections daily, there are concerns that public hospitals too, will soon be overwhelmed.
While statistics from private hospitals were by late yesterday afternoon not available, data released by Zikalala showed that there were still enough Covid-19 beds in public hospitals.
Of the 127 ICU beds in the province’s public hospitals, half were still unoccupied while 3% of isolation beds remained unoccupied. At Pietermaritzburg’s Royal Showgrounds field hospital with 250 isolation beds, fewer than 5% are currently occupied.
The ban on the sale of alcohol and other level 3 restrictions, Zikalala said, also helped free up public hospital beds.
“As a result of your adherence to the restrictions under Alert Lockdown Level 3, on New Year’s Eve and on New Year’s Day, some of our busiest hospitals in the province reported a very low intake of patients.
Their emergency and trauma units were virtually empty, thanks to the early curfew and the ban on alcohol sales. This includes hospitals such as Prince Mshiyeni Memorial, King Edward VIII, Addington, Edendale, Madadeni, Ngwelezane, Port Shepstone and others,” he said.
A lack of adherence to Covid-19 protocols, including the failure to wear masks, has been blamed for the recent rise in infections.
Zikalala said the provincial government had adopted a hard line against those who broke the regulations, including liquor outlets that continued to trade despite the ban on the sale of alcohol.
“We call on all right-thinking South Africans to not only isolate these people by not supporting their trade, but to also report them anonymously, by contacting the SAPS on 10111, so that we can take action,” he said.
As of December 29 more than 700 people had been arrested for violating Covid-19 regulations. Of the 729 arrests, Zikalala said, 246 were for breaking the 9 pm to 6 am curfew, 66 for selling and transporting liquor and 392 for not wearing a mask.
On Saturday, the province recorded 4 714 new cases. The uMngungundlovu District Municipality, which alongside eThekwini and four other districts has been categorised as a hotspot, recorded 203 new infections on Saturday while eThekwini recorded 3 720.
Covid-19 vaccine by February — but for frontline staff
Meanwhile, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize has announced that the first batch of Covid-19 vaccines could arrive in the country as early as next month.
Briefing the media yesterday, Mkhize, who said South Africa was currently negotiating with vaccine manufacturers, assured citizens that the government was committed to procuring vaccines urgently.
Mkhize also denied that there was “hesitation” on the part of the government as some have suggested “on social media”.
“The only way of being able to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic is the provision of immunity through vaccination. We have been trying to follow what the best way is to deal with this. The vaccines will need to be made available quickly so that most of our citizens are covered by the end of the first year of rollout — this year,” he said.
While government was pushing for the first batch to arrive next month, Mkhize said it would only be available for the frontline workers such as nurses and doctors.
The second batch, Mkhize said, would be for essential workers, people with comorbidities and the elderly.
While government’s target was to get the rest of the population vaccinated before the end of the year, it currently does not have the funds to buy enough vaccines for the entire population.