JOHANNESBURG – Localised coronavirus outbreaks in parts of South Africa have raised fears that the country could see a resurgence in cases compounded by gatherings during the upcoming festive season.
Officials in Africa’s hardest virus-hit country are scrambling to contain infections after a flare-up was reported in the impoverished Eastern Cape province and adjacent Western Cape province last month.
The national number of new daily cases crept over 3,000 last week, up 50% from an average of 2,000 earlier in November.
More than half the increase is driven by infections in the Eastern Cape and around 25% by cases in the Western Cape.
“(The) mall cluster outbreaks which we are seeing... are transient,” Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said during an emergency trip to the Eastern Cape last week.
“Something has to be done,” he stressed.
South Africa’s coronavirus transmission rate had slowed significantly after infections peaked in July, with less than three daily cases detected per 100,000 people between the end of August and the start of November.
“We are not in a second wave, but in these two provinces... we are in the midst of a resurgence,” said the government’s chief Covid-19 advisor Salim Abdool Karim.
If the new outbreaks are not contained, he warned, it would be “just a matter of time” before the uptick hits the whole country.
Hospitals in the Eastern Cape’s largest city of Port Elizabeth are already struggling, although local government officials insist they are coping.
Doctors still reeling from the first wave have asked international medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) to assist at three main public facilities.
“Hospitals indeed are overwhelmed with much higher numbers of patients... some say even higher than in July,” said MSF doctor Colin Pfaff, project medical response coordinator in the province.
“Facilities are struggling with lack of staff,” he added, blaming “chronic deficiencies” and coronavirus infections among healthcare workers.
Private facilities are also feeling the pinch.
“Our Eastern Cape hospitals are incredibly full at the moment,” said Richard Friedland, the head of South Africa’s leading private healthcare provider Netcare.
More beds are being added, “so we still have capacity to treat cases”, he said.
While the provincial government insists hospitals are neither “full”nor “overflowing”, the national doctors association this week accused the Health Ministry of failing to adequately support “overworked” staff.
In the Western Cape, authorities are pondering targeted restrictions.
“We must first do everything possible, through our individual and collective action to ensure the resurgence is rolled back,” Western Cape Premier Alan Winde said. – AFP, December 3, 2020
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