Thousands recovering from coronavirus without hospital, says premier
Most people who test positive for Covid-19 are recovering without being hospitalised, something that may allay fears that the province could run short of beds as the number of new cases continues to climb, according to premier Oscar Mabuyane.
The province had a healthy 89.6% recovery rate on Tuesday, he said, adding that of 79,674 confirmed cases, 71,420 people had recovered and 1,789 had died.
His recovery figure differs from the one released by health minister Zweli Mkhize on Monday night, who said the Eastern Cape had 70,074 recoveries.
A statement released by Mabuyane’ s office on Tuesday said 71,420 had recovered without spending a single day in hospital.
Mabuyane’s spokesperson Mvusiwekhaya Sicwetsha said they were standing by the recovery figure, as it had been given to the premier by their epidemiologist.
Mabuyane said they wanted the national department of health and the SA Medical Research Council to conduct a study to determine how people were beating the novel virus in the comfort of their homes, saying “indigenous interventions” like the use of umhlonyane and gum tree could help heal people who had contracted it.
Mabuyane said their data showed all districts had an
above 80% recovery rate.
“We have instructed our teams to ascertain how more than 71,420 people who were infected with the virus defeated it without being hospitalised.
“This is crucial information we must have at our disposal going into the peak months of this virus.”
Mabuyane said the number of new cases per day had decreased to less than 1,000. He broke this down further as:
* BCM had a 49.9% reduction in the number of newly reported
cases;* OR Tambo 41.1%;* Sarah Baartman 40%; and* Nelson Mandela Bay 35.9%.
He made the announcement while visiting the Bay, where he visited hospitals and hailed the newly equipped Volkswagen SA laboratory, which accelerates the turnaround time of test results.
“VWSA is enhancing our testing capacity. On top of that they are adding an impetus to our investments of resourcing our healthcare facilities with PPE to
protect our front-line staff.
“Both these donations come at a critical stage ahead of the peak period of the virus when we are expecting more infections.”
He said contact tracing had also improved, with over 106,000 contacts traced from 112,000 identified contacts.
Mabuyane announced that Bhisho was on a drive to finish 92 infrastructure projects worth R657m through refurbishing 68 facilities, which would result in 2,686 available hospital beds.
He said they had filled 7,000 of 7,652 posts using Covid-19 grant funding.
A total of 500 ward assistants would be employed in the coming weeks while 350 final-year nursing students would be deployed to health facilities in September.
Mabuyane said the project management unit led by Mkhize’s adviser, Dr Sibongile Zungu, which is helping the province in the fight against the pandemic, had hit the ground running.