[imagesource: 3D4MEDICAL]

The Western Cape has been battling the highest rates of COVID-19 infections in the country, making it the current epicentre of the virus in South Africa.

While we are far from beating the pandemic, it has become necessary to reopen the economy.

This was supposed to happen in stages determined through a risk-adjusted strategy, but the process seems to have been accelerated as job losses, closing businesses, and a deep recession threatens the economic sustainability of South Africa.

The move is a double-edged sword in many respects. The economy needs to reopen, while at the same time, it could have an adverse effect on efforts to control the spread of the coronavirus.

According to Cape Town Etc., during his weekly digi-conference, Premier Alan Winde cautioned those living in the Western Cape to remain vigilant as more business sectors open their doors.

The province is expected to hit its peak as soon as next week, says Premier Alan Winde.

“We still are tracking according to our original scenario that we sketched for this virus, and are still on track for peaking towards the end of this month and the beginning of next month, and that means that as we open up the economy we have to be more vigilant than ever. We’ve got to make sure that we embed the new normal, and specifically into those hotspot areas so that we keep down the growth of this virus,” he said.

That means masks worn properly, not as a chin strap or with your nose poking out, regular handwashing, and sanitising and physical distancing.

You know the drill.

Figures released yesterday (Thursday, 18 June) record 12 738 active COVID-19 cases in the Western Cape, 1 205 deaths, and roughly 500 patients in hospital, with 240 of them in intensive care units.

Dr Keith Cloete, HoD of the Western Cape Health Department said, the province’s status as a popular tourism destination may have contributed towards the coming peak.

According to Cloete, “quite a lot” of people visited the Western Cape at the end of March, and these included tourists from outside the country, and locals who were returning from overseas. This effectively led to local transmission cases, which then led to the current hotspots the province has.

New testing and triage centres are opening their doors with more on the way due to open by July 1. These form part of the province’s attempts to reduce the strain on healthcare facilities so that they are not overwhelmed by requests for testing.

Over the past few weeks, active cases of the virus have been rising steadily across the country, with the past week’s cases averaging around 4 000 a day.

It’s predicted that we could be looking at 380 000 active cases by August.

More on that, here.

[source:capetownetc]