MEDICAL EXPERTS SAY POOR CONTACT TRACING A LOST OPPORTUNITY FOR COVID19 CONTAINMENT – ITS NOW TIME FOR MASKS
Mark Rountree, National Policy Officer for GOOD
24 June 2020
I agree with the latest publication from doctors Shabir Madhi, Glenda Gray and six others who criticize the lost opportunity of South Africa’s lockdown period, saying that the “ability to trace at least 70% of contacts, which is vital to achieve containment, was not in place.”
This was certainly the case in the Western Cape and a problem GOOD has been monitoring for some time.
As of mid-May, data from the National Minister of Health showed that the KZN Health Dept traced three close contacts per Covid19 case, Gauteng traced four per case, but the Western Cape province traced less than one close contact per Covid19 case.
The Western Cape was the poorest performing province for contact tracing and it now accounts for 73% of all Covid19 deaths in South Africa.
Whilst our queries in to the poor contact tracing have now seen a renewed effort by the province, the lost opportunities to contain the spread earlier are difficult to accept.
We offer our sincere condolences to the more than 1536 people who have died in the Western Cape and the 566 in the rest of South Africa as a result of the spread of the Covid19 virus.
GOOD supports the calls from these medical professionals for cloth masks, hand washing and social distancing measures to try to slow the spread.
I was encouraged to read that a recent analysis of 198 countries showed that where face masks in public are being used, the weekly increase in Covid19 cases is just 8% on average, compared with 54% where masks are not used.
We call on all South Africans to Mask Up!
Ends