Hospitals in the Western Cape could reach breaking point this weekend as Covid-19 infections rise, relaxed alcohol regulations take their toll and the usual month-end trauma load hits.
“Adjusted level 3 allows partial availability of alcohol, and this coincides with the usual end-of-month trauma burden. At the same time, our healthcare system is at maximum capacity. This has significant implications for the system this weekend,” he said.Cloete said preventing trauma lies in the hands of communities, not the healthcare system.
“Mitigation for trauma is outside the healthcare system, and we cannot control violence and trauma in communities. That is why we are asking people at the weekend to be vigilant,” he said.Sixty-nine tonnes of oxygen are being used every day and Afrox can only produce 70, “so we are just at capacity”, said Cloete.suggested there was a 73% chance the province had hit its third wave peak.
However, infections, hospitalisations and deaths have been rising, and the reproduction rate has to drop below one before a peak can be called over. “Right now it is 1.1 so we have not yet hit the peak,” said Cloete, adding that the proportion of tests that turn up positive had also increased. “They now say that the actual reality is that there’s only a 42% chance we have peaked already ... last week they predicted that we would have fewer cases this week but we in fact had more and we remain in this phase of widespread community transmission.”
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