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State quarantine for all those Covid-19 positive - Mkhize
DOING THE ROUNDS: Health Minister Zweli Mkhize, right, visits Cecilia Makiwane Hospital on Monday to officially open a 41-bed Covid-19 ward. He was accompanied by MEC Sindiswa Gomba and the hospital CEO, Sicelo Msi.
Everyone who has tested positive for Covid-19, even if they are asymptomatic, will soon be admitted to isolation facilities as a way of containing the spread of the virus, health minister Zweli Mkhize said on Monday.
Mkhize and Eastern Cape health MEC Sindiswa Gomba were addressing the media at the Cecilia Makiwane Hospital (CMH) in Mdantsane after hours of a closed meeting with premier Oscar Mabuyane and senior government officials.
Mkhize did not provide much detail on how the government would carry out admissions to its hospitals and quarantine facilities.
“It still means they can still be taken for admission in hospital, not because they need to be treated but because we need to keep them in a place where the body can fight the virus away from the community that could easily get infected,” he said.
The Dispatch reported last month that some of those infected had refused to self-isolate or go into quarantine or hospital in some parts of the province.
“We call on our people to cooperate with our programmes to contain the virus,” Mkhize said.
His visit to the Eastern Cape comes just over two weeks after he was so unhappy with the province’s handling of the pandemic that he seconded some specialists to help in the fight against the coronavirus.
Mkhize said there were now 1,356 confirmed cases in the Eastern Cape and 24 deaths. The number of confirmed cases nationally stood at 10,652 nationally on Monday afternoon.
“In the Eastern Cape there are almost a million people screened and eight million in the country.”
During his last visit, the Eastern Cape was criticised for failing to submit daily reports to Pretoria — something Mkhize said had improved dramatically.
“The provincial government is on top of its game and trying to respond [to the coronavirus],” he said, before showering Bhisho with more compliments.
“I am quite comfortable with plans shown to us that they are following protocols.
“I got a thorough briefing on how much has been done. No worker must be exposed without having PPE.
“We will also help the department to procure more PPE. We are monitoring this one very closely and will continue getting reports so that the safety of our workers is prioritised.”
Mkhize said the provincial health department had employed 800 nurses in the past week, and 20 Cuban doctors would be deployed to Covid-19 hotspots like Nelson Mandela Bay and Buffalo City metros by the end of this week.
He cautioned against negativity toward the Cuban doctors, saying their expertise would go a long way in helping flatten the curve.
“The Cuban specialists understand the approach to community and family health where you need to look at not just one person but the people in their surroundings so that we can manage the disease as it afflicts the entire community.”
Mkhize said he was concerned about the 137 people who travelled from the Western Cape to the Eastern Cape during the window when interprovincial travelling was allowed.
“The Western Cape and Eastern Cape infections are closely linked. The proximity to the Western Cape means these two provinces are operating like an ecosystem,” he said, adding that both Mabuyane and his Western Cape counterpart, Alan Winde, had told him they were working together to stop the spread of the virus.
Mkhize’s visit was in preparation for President Cyril Ramaphosa’s visit to the province later this week.
The minister said he was happy with progress in renovations to CMH.
He praised Gomba and the provincial health department saying, “they are on top of their game”.
“Since I left, in the two weeks,
We need to keep them in a place where the body can fight the virus
every day I receive a report from the MEC. I am pleased, I have been shown about and these renovations have taken two weeks and more field hospitals have been created and we will be visiting others later on.”
The minister stressed how social gatherings and funerals were a big contributing factor to the province’s confirmed cases.
“We’ve said that night vigils should not be continued,” he said.
Gomba said they were grateful for the assistance from Mkhize, which had helped them “in doing things better”.
She praised health workers for their work since the coronavirus outbreak.