Statement by Brett Herron, Secretary General for GOOD and Member of the Western Cape Provincial Legislature
COVID-19: WHAT IS GOING WRONG IN THE WESTERN CAPE?
PROVINCE HAS FAILED AT CONTACT TRACING.
19 May 2020
The Western Cape now accounts for more cases and deaths from Covid-19 than all other 8 provinces combined and the Western Cape’s case numbers and death rates continue to spiral.
In a document sent to members of the Western Cape Provincial Parliament’s Covid-19 Ad Hoc Committee last night, Dr M Moodley – Head of the Western Cape Department of Health – said that that the province’s Covid-19 infection rates now suggest “earlier onset of rapid exponential growth in hospitalisation and death than initially considered at the onset of lockdown.”
In the absence of a vaccination, the ability to trace contacts and place them in quarantine, isolating them from the rest of the community, is a globally regarded best practise to slow the transmission of the virus.
This week the Western Cape reports that it has been able to trace 11,181 contacts for its 8404 cases. This means the Western Cape is tracing just 1,3 contacts per Covid19 case.
Comparatively, in Gauteng, last week 9600 contacts had been traced for their 2262 cases – more than 4.2 contacts traced per case; and in KZN, a fortnight ago, the contacts per case ratio was 2.8 (3131 contacts traced for the 1106 cases).
Quite obviously a tracing rate of 1.3 people per positive case is hopelessly inadequate to control the spread of the virus and this explains the rampant transmission rate.
Without adequate contact tracing the isolation and quarantine health protocols also fail.
What concerns me a great deal is the that so few people appear to be in isolation or quarantine facilities.
Dr Moodley reported that on 16 May 2020 just 468 people were in isolation or quarantine facilities in the Western Cape. On this day we had 5158 active Covid-19 cases (8404 confirmed cases with 3097 recoveries and 149 deaths). If less than 10% of these cases were in isolation or quarantine, where were the other 90%?
Covid-19 victims who do not quarantine can too easily infect other people that they come in to contact with.
Dr Zweli Mkhize has hinted that at least 7 districts in the country are not ready to move from Level 4 to Level 3 of the national government’s risk-adjusted lockdown strategy. The Health Minister and his team are analysing infection rates for the period 2 – 8 May 2020.
At the top of that list, with the highest rate of infection, is the City of Cape Town with average active cases exceeding 50 per 100 000 people. This is more than double the infection rate of the second highest district, iLembe, just north of Durban in KwaZulu Natal which includes the town of Ballito. iLembe has an infection rate of 18 active cases per 100 000 people.
The Premier has called for the Province to immediately move from Level 4 to Level 3 of the lockdown but there is no health or science data to support this call.
We deserve to know how Gauteng, with less than half the number of cases than the Western Cape, has managed to trace more contacts.
Dr Nomafrench Mbombo, MEC for Health, must advise whether the Western Cape is deliberately pursuing a strategy of herd immunity – as advocated by leader of the DA in the Western Cape, Bonginkosi Madikizela. Is this the reason for the explosion of cases in the Western Cape?
It would also be useful for us to know the province’s attitude to using quarantine and isolation sites. Why are the quarantine sites empty?
Ends…