The Western Cape has recorded 42 more Covid-19 deaths, bringing the total number of deaths from the virus in the province to 643.
As of 1pm on Thursday, 4 June, the Western Cape has 11 469 active cases of Covid-19, with a total of 26 386 confirmed cases and 14 917 recoveries. There are 973 people in hospital, of which 193 are in ICU or high care.
Premier Alan Winde has extended his condolences to the families who have lost their loved ones as the virus continues to spread in the province.
The national Department of Health figures for the Western Cape differ from those announced by Winde daily because the national figures are compiled from data supplied before the provincial figures are announced.
Health Systems Preparedness:
Winde has revealed that the provincial cabinet has given the go-ahead to explore the creation of an additional 800 beds, including the staff to attend to those beds, at CTICC 2.
This comes after the data released last week from the scenario-planning exercise, which showed that initial planning projections and the 1 428 beds that were prepared, would fall short of the province’s needs.
“The (approval of using CTICC2) will give us a cumulative total of 2 227 additional intermediate beds in the system,” Winde said.
“The CTICC 1 hospital will officially be opened tomorrow. Over the past week, staff have been on site for orientation and the facility will accept its first patients on Monday.
“The Khayelithsa Thusong hospital, built by Medicins Sans Frontiers, is already in operation. Our other planned facilities at Sonstraal in the Cape Winelands, and the 330 bed facility at Brackengate, are also currently under construction,” Winde said.
Critical care:
He added that the MASHA model, which is the national epidemiological model being used for scenario planning, indicates that there will be a shortage of critical-care beds in South Africa and in the Western Cape.
However, he stressed that aside from beds and ventilators, there is urgent need for trained ICU or high care staff.
“In the public sector, we have 135 beds available to us, but this is constrained by the availability of staff, allowing us to only use about 100 of these. There are plans in place to bring online an additional 100 beds in the public sector, and plans are now under way to contract additional beds for public sector patients in the private sector.
“The Western Cape Government is currently in the process of negotiating to contract 300 private ICU or high-care beds after a tariff agreement was reached on Wednesday between the private sector and the national Minister of Health,” Winde said.
He added that critical-care beds will, however, remain under pressure in the Western Cape, which is why the province is taking steps to protect the most high-risk groups.
The premier also advised that anyone seeking advice on Covid-19 can call the hotline on 021 928 4102.
Cape Argus
