We’re ready for the third wave – health staff
After a year battling coronavirus, exhausted health workers are celebrating a drop in cases but dread another wave of infections.
“We are relieved now because the numbers are down,” nurse Constance Mathibela said at Tembisa Hospital.
After the epidemic hit its stride, the hospital “was almost full every day,” she recalled.
South Africa recorded its first case of coronavirus on 5 March last year. It has since been through two virus storms, recording over 1.5 million cases and more than 50 000 deaths – the highest in Africa.
But on Sunday President Cyril Ramaphosa declared the second wave, fuelled by a new, more contagious, variant, was over. The nationwide tally of daily new infections fell to just over 500 this week after peaking at more than 21 000 on 7 January.
Ramaphosa’s announcement was welcome news for many medical workers who have been driven to the brink of burnout. But with a vaccination drive having started only last month, they are also bracing for a possible third wave. Scientists believe it could land with the onset of the southern hemisphere winter, around May or June.
“At the beginning it was very scary because we didn’t know Covid at all,” said Mathibela, the first nurse to work in a Covid-19 ward at the hospital.
One of the least documented aspects of the epidemic is the mental toll inflicted on health workers as they watched patients struggle with the disease and pass away.
“We were so depressed, all of us,” said nurse Salome Nkoana.
But, said ward manager Phuti Kobo: “We will be much wiser when we approach the third wave. We are ready.” –