The Democratic Alliance has raised concerns around the recent spike in Gauteng’s Covid-19 infections and a lack of accurate reporting.<\/p>\n
The province reported 1,162 new infections on Wednesday (10 December) – almost triple the average number of daily infections last week.<\/p>\n
However, DA Gauteng health representative Jack Bloom says that the provincial government has failed to provide accurate figures and a district breakdown to track the spike in cases.<\/p>\n
“People have the right to be informed about emerging hotspots, but the Gauteng Health Department has not published district and sub-district figures since 4 November.<\/p>\n
“A question mark also remains over the accuracy of Gauteng figures since it was claimed at one stage that there were fewer active infections than those in hospital with the disease. This prompted the National Health Department to request Gauteng to ‘harmonise’ its data as the figures did not make sense,” Bloom said.<\/p>\n
He added that there are currently 1,349 Covid-19 patients in Gauteng hospitals which is much lower than the 7,500 recorded at the peak of the epidemic in July this year. However, he said that the numbers can be expected to increase rapidly.<\/p>\n
“People need to take basic precautions over the festive season to slow down the resurgence of this epidemic as our hospitals will again come under severe strain.”<\/p>\n
Second wave\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n While Gauteng was thought to have brought its coronavirus cases under control, health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize confirmed that the province is partly responsible for driving a second wave of infections in the country.<\/p>\n “We are now entering a second wave. It is important for us to highlight that four provinces \u2013 Western Cape, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng \u2013 are the key drivers of this new wave,” the minister said in a briefing on Wednesday.<\/p>\n “We look at the number of tests done, the positivity rate, the number of positive cases, the percentage positive, the numbers of people who are admitted, and the number of fatalities.<\/p>\n “All of these together must show an indication of an increase on a week-to-week period over a seven-day period. We then conclude that there is an increase.”<\/p>\n Mkhize said that the\u00a0majority of the new cases are from the Western Cape (30%), followed by Eastern Cape (24%), KZN (23%) and Gauteng (17%).<\/p>\n “The other seriously concerning issue which I need to bring to the attention of the public, firstly is that when we were on the plateau, we had a positivity rate of 10%.<\/p>\n “As of today, the rate is at 18%. But some provinces are much higher than the 18%; the 18% is now the average for the entire country. There is a rapid increase in KZN and Gauteng, which is exponential,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n On Wednesday, South Africa reported 6,709 new cases, taking the total reported to 828,598.<\/p>\n Deaths have reached 22,574, a daily increase of 142, while recoveries have climbed to 754,658, leaving the country with a balance of 51,366 active cases.<\/p>\n
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