Covid-19 weekly round-up: Gauteng Health activates resurgence plans

Gauteng is South Africa’s most populous province and is also the Covid-19 epicentre of the country, which is why the army has deployed its medical personnel to ramp up the province’s resurgence plans.

MEC of Health for the province, Dr Nomathemba Mokgethi, said that while the healthcare system may be under pressure it will have enough capacity to cope with the demand.

Senior researcher at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Dr Ridhwaan Suliman said Gauteng has reported its highest number of new cases in a day.

On Sunday the province recorded over 8 600 new Covid-19 cases.
The National Institute For Communicable Diseases (NICD) says the majority of new cases are from Gauteng with 66%, followed by the Western Cape with 9%.

The number of daily new cases jumped from below 800 in early April, to over 13,000 in the past week.

Nationally, hospital admissions increased by 25% from last week with 611 hospital admissions reported in the past 24 hours.

After teachers, here’s who is next in line for Covid-19 vaccines

South African school teachers and education sector workers will start to receive their Covid-19 vaccine this week and the rollout will take place over a period of ten working days.

After the education sector rollout is completed, police officers, the military and prison warders are the next group of essential workers set to be vaccinated in July.

The deputy director-general of the health department, Dr Nicholas Crisp, said during a media briefing on Friday that 300 000 Johnson & Johnson doses have been earmarked for those employed in the education sector.

Crisp said there are around 582 000 people employed in the public and private basic education sector.

The Basic Education Department said arrangements are currently being made for schools to get designated vaccination sites, and there will be transport provided for teachers to get to the sites.

Upon the completion of vaccinating teachers, police will be next in line as the department of health have identified 145 000 officials and 36 000 civilians working in the police service.

Ramaphosa calls for regulations compliance in lockdown level 3
President Cyril Ramaphosa has called on South Africans to adhere to lockdown level three regulations.

Last week, Ramaphosa announced that the country was moving to a stricter level three lockdown as the country is experiencing an exponential rise in Covid-19 infections and deaths.

In his weekly newsletter, he urged the public to continue to avoid social gatherings of all kinds, whether for family, friends, business or recreation.

He noted that the climb in new cases has been steep over the past few weeks.

In alert level three, the hours of curfew are from 10PM until 4AM. Non-essential establishments close at 9PM, all gatherings are limited to 50 people indoors and 100 people outdoors, and the sale of alcohol for off-site consumption is permitted between 10AM – 6PM from Monday to Thursday.

Keep an eye out next week for another roundup of the top Covid-19 stories.

kelly.turner@africannewsagency.com