Covid-19 claims two more lives in Garden Route
Two people died from Covid-19 in the Garden Route since Friday last week - one in George and one in Knysna.
This brings the total number of deaths in the Garden Route and Little Karoo to seven (three in George, one in Mossel Bay, two in Knysna and one in Hessequa).
As at 13:00 on Wednesday 10 June, a total of 309 people in the district have tested positive of whom 179 have recovered.
On Tuesday 9 June, Mediclinic George manager Kassie Karstens confirmed that two Covid patients in the ICU were in a critical condition. They were admitted during May. "No new Covid patients have been admitted. The two staff members who were in isolation after testing positive are back at work and they are doing well."
According to a district spokesperson for Western Cape Health, Leensie Lötter, six patients are being treated in the George Hospital, one of whom is in ICU.
Since last week, one more staff member has tested positive, bringing the total of staff infected with the coronavirus to date to six. Five have recovered and one person is in isolation with only mild symptoms.
Alcohol abuse taking away hospital beds
In a statement on Wednesday 10 June, Premier Alan Winde expressed concern over a "significant spike" in trauma cases in the province's hospitals linked to alcohol use since the sale of alcohol was unbanned on 1 June. "This is extremely concerning to us as the healthcare system is already under pressure as a result of Covid-19," said Winde.
"Since yesterday [Tuesday] there have been numerous rumours that alcohol will be banned again. The Western Cape has not made any announcements to this effect, and we have not received any indication from the national government that this is planned. However, I want to be very clear with the people of the Western Cape: alcohol abuse is taking away hospital beds and care from people who need them during this very serious pandemic."
Over 1 400 beds for province
During his visit to the Western Cape last week, President Cyril Ramaphosa opened the 862-bed Hospital of Hope at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) which the Western Cape government has prepared for the peak of the Covid-19 epidemic.
The facility was ready within a matter of weeks and on Monday 8 June started to take in its first patients. The Western Cape's current plans will create over 1 400 beds in the province, and the potential CTICC 2 project that is being discussed, could bring on board a further 800 or more beds, according to the Health Department.
IT teams have furthermore developed a new nurse calling system in the CTICC, which will be an entirely paperless facility.
Facility in George
No confirmation could be obtained from the Western Cape Health or Public Works departments about the state of readiness of the Heatherlands High School in George, which was identified earlier as a possible venue for a field hospital.
The National Health Laboratory Services (NHLS) is currently conducting an experiment to investigate how long the RNA of the novel coronavirus can remain detectable in simulated Covid-19 testing samples. George Herald asked the NHLS how long Covid-19 swab samples can be kept and if they are thrown away at some stage because of the testing backlog. NHLS senior communications manager Mzi Gcukumana said all biological samples will deteriorate at some point. "We are aware of the theory that samples beyond a certain age can provide false negatives, but our testing results do not support this theory.