KZN achieves flatter curve, eThekwini and iLembe still hot spots
KWAZULU-NATAL has managed to maintain a flatter Covid-19 curve but health authorities are keeping a close eye on eThekwini and iLembe municipalities which remain hot spots of infection.
Premier Sihle Zikalaka, during his weekly media update on Covid-19, said: “KwaZulu-Natal has experienced an increase in Covid-19 cases. As the country moved to level 3 and most sectors of the economy started to become active, we have observed a rapid surge in cluster cases being reported. As at June 7, we have recorded a total of 259 cluster cases – 70 from a tyre company, 120 from a warehouse retail, 13 from a Memorial Hospital, nine from the airport and 47 from a production company,” Zikalala said.
In KZN as of last night, the number of Covid-19 cases stood at 3175.
There have been 62 deaths, and 1378 recoveries.
However, he said that so far KZN had “maintained a flatter curve and constant accumulation of cases”.
“KZN initially had a higher case fatality rate because of the hospital outbreaks that involved many sick and older patients, who were most at risk of severe disease and death. The number of deaths has since stabilised, and correlates better with cases, at a case fatality rate of 2%,” Zikalala said.
“We’re monitoring clustered infection hot spots to respond timeously and contain the spread of infections. We are also working on identifying vulnerable areas. These will be identified through a vulnerability index that is currently being constructed. We want to use this measure of vulnerability to stay ahead of the outbreaks,” he said.
He said the eThekwini and iLembe districts continued to contribute more than 80% of the total cases provincially.
“The overall incidence risk for the province was 13.8 per 100 000 population, calculated using active cases. The eThekwini Metro Municipality contributes 82% of the reported deaths, followed by iLembe,” Zikalaka said.
The iLembe District has the highest
incidence risk, at 47.4 per 100 000; while eThekwini shows an incidence risk of 26.1 per 100000. Zikalala said an analysis had shown that most eThekwini cases and fatalities emanated from the city’s southern and northern sub-districts, followed by the western sub-district.
He said uMgungundlovu and uThukela were the next-worst hit.
“More effort is being put into all these districts with a view that if we manage to control the spread in them, it will be possible to have an impact in the whole province,” he said.
He said 327 patients had been admitted to private hospitals (126 patients) and public hospitals (201 patients) as of June 6 and more of the patients admitted to private hospitals had required intensive care.
He said 22%, or six of the patients currently in ICUs, had been ventilated.
Zikalala said the province had prepared 7 111 “Covid-19-ready” beds to prepare for winter when more patients would present with flu-like symptoms and additional nurses would be hired on six-month contracts.
He said 61% (37 patients) of fatalities were men and the median age of deaths was 66, with a range from 39 to 91. However, he said 55% of people who had contracted the virus across the province were women.
“The proportion of children continues to increase with the increase in female cases. Male cases peak between the ages of 25-39 years. Female cases peak from 25-49 years. In KZN we are observing a pattern that the majority of our cases are averaging between the ages of 25-39 years,” he said.