Premier Zamani Saul blames the doubling of Covid-19 case numbers a week after level three restrictions were implemented – on people travelling from neighbouring provinces.
After President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement of the risk-adjusted strategy of moving South Africa to level three of lockdown, the explosion of Covid-19 cases was expected.
“It’s quite clear: the more the lockdown regulations are relaxed, the more we will see a spike in the level of transmission here,” he said. Saul is particularly worried about municipalities bordering neighbouring provinces — small towns like Colesberg and Petrusville in the Pixley Ka Seme district municipality border the Free State and the Eastern Cape.
Saul suggested that provinces and districts with high rates of transmission should remain at higher levels of lockdown to protect their neighbours. The Western Cape is of particular concern. With 36 021 cases as of Wednesday, it is the epicentre of the outbreak in South Africa, accounting for as much as 65% of Covid-19 cases nationally.
“We are preparing for the worst, but hoping for the best. We have field hospitals with 2 000 beds dedicated to Covid-19 around the province, including extra ICU [intensive care unit] beds. “When mines were operating at half capacity, we had no cases of any outbreaks. Even with the increased capacity of mines, our mines have such stricter health protocols, even maybe stricter than some of our public-health facilities. That really is assisting us to help keep our numbers down,” said Saul.
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