Only 222 admitted from 2 639 COVID‐ 19 con irmed cases

MBABANE – From a total of 2 639 COVID- 19 confirmed cases recorded on Tuesday, only 222 are admitted.

This is according to the COVID- 19 daily info by the Ministry of Health.

This essentially means that on the same day, there were 2 417 positive cases isolating at home, and there are concerns that this may put the country in danger of contracting the virus as some infected cases may still be travelling.

Meanwhile, there was a total of six deaths reported, while 361 tested positive for COVID- 19.

This put the COVID- 19- related deaths at 765 and the number of confirmed cases at 23 708 since the first confirmed case in March last year.

Worth noting is that this publication reported that due to the rise in the number of COVID- 19 infections in the country, the Lubombo Referral Hospital was running out of beds in its intensive care unit ( ICU). According to a senior staff member at the health facility, it was reported that the facility had 44 admitted and recuperating patients, with seven of them in the ICU. This was on July 21. The staff member confided that they were being overwhelmed by patients with underlying ailments who were transferred to the facility in that previous week.

Other facilities currently housing patients recuperating from COVID- 19 are the Mavuso Quarantine Centre and the Luke Commission at Sidvokodvoko.

The healthcare worker was quoted having said the facility had four rooms under the ICU unit and each accommodated three patients. He said the rise in the infection rate might see them running out of beds before the end of the week.

“We hope government will do something about the prevailing situation as we might be overwhelmed,” the healthcare worker said. Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union ( SWADNU) Secretary General ( SG) Mayibongwe Masangane said the fact that a majority of active cases were not hospitalised posed a lot of danger.

Majority

“There is danger in that a majority is not admitted and it if it happens that it becomes worse than it already is, chances of people dying are many than when they are in hospital under care of healthcare workers,” Masangane said. He added that at the same time, government’s response to the pandemic was not effective. The SG said government assured its readiness to the third wave but what was currently happening was the total opposite. Responding, Minister Lizzie Nkosi said as in every wave, so far, the majority who tested positive were asymptomatic or mild, and isolated at home for 10 days.

“If they don’t develop symptoms, they are free to go. If they develop any symptom, they call and get help,” Nkosi said.

The minister further mentioned that there was another group ( mild or mode), that received home care. She said they were initiated on treatment and isolated at home. Nkosi stated that the healthcare team called and visited them at home.

Again, she said if they experienced changes in their condition, they called for help. The minister mentioned that those with moderate and severe diseases were hospitalised as appropriate.

Meanwhile, Director of Health Services Dr Vusi Magagula said the ministry was doing everything possible to circumvent the situation after an increase in infections for the past two months.

Dr Magagula said the ministry would alternatively use The Luke Commission facility in housing those who need ICU equipment.

He said there were other health facilities like the Manzini and Mbabane Clinics, however, these facilities called for patients to incur the expenses as they were privately run.