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Over the past few weeks, there has been an alarming resurgence in COVID-19 cases in various parts of the country.

The Western Cape is front and centre, with cluster outbreaks occurring along the Garden Route, leading to George, Knysna, and Bitou being declared hotspots.

Yesterday, we covered the concerns of Western Cape Health Department’s chief of operations, Dr. Saadiq Kariem, who called it a “potentially explosive situation”, but that interview was done before the latest round of figures came out.

Now Alan Winde has sounded the alarm, releasing an official statement, titled ‘COVID-19 resurgence in the Western Cape; urgent public response required’.

Some of the standout stats from that release:

The Western Cape Government is deeply concerned about the growing number of COVID-19 infections and hospitalisations in the province, which can now be considered as an established resurgence.

A resurgence is when the number of active cases increase, week-on-week, by more than 20%. Over the last week alone, the province has witnessed a 52.1% jump in new cases, with an established pattern over time.

There is also now established community transmission of the virus again in this province, which means that it is spreading within communities at a faster rate.

There are two districts that are of concern, the Garden Route, and the Cape Metro (which encompasses all of these areas):

The City of Cape Town is following a similar trajectory to this region [Garden Route] and looks to be about 10-14 days behind. We are therefore also issuing a hotspot alert for the Metro.

It is important to highlight that the growth in cases in the City is being recorded in every sub-district and is not being driven by any one area. This is verified by waste-water treatment testing…

This established COVID-19 resurgence in the Western Cape is also reflected in the proportion of positive tests, which has now grown to 16%. This is comparable to the test positivity rate experienced in the Western Cape in early May 2020.

In early May, we were under extremely strict lockdown measures, and the virus still managed to spread.

With alert level one in place, curbing that spread now relies largely on citizens acting responsibly.

Winde pointed out that the province’s hospital system is once again taking strain, with critical care admissions increasing by 75% since the start of November.

Returning to harder lockdowns will further cripple the country’s economy, and cause countless businesses to shut their doors, so the call has gone out for the public to be vigilant:

 “We need every person in the Western Cape to help prevent a lockdown and to ensure that there are enough empty beds in our hospitals for those who need them” 

We must be under no illusion as to how serious the situation is, and how quickly it can deteriorate further…our hospitals are already fuller than they were earlier this year, during the first wave of hospitalisations…

Every single resident should assume that COVID-19 is everywhere they go and take all the necessary precautions at every point along their journey.

One only needs to look at Europe, where many countries have returned to very strict lockdown measures, to know what happens next if the tide isn’t turned.

Finally, Winde said it’s time to hold those who don’t adhere to protocols accountable:

We urge members of the public, businesses and other organisations to report violations of Covid-19 protocols immediately so that our teams can take action immediately. #DigiconUpdate #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/6bRw4Mgwl8

— Premier Alan Winde (@alanwinde) November 25, 2020

You can read that statement in full here.

Here are the latest countrywide stats, released by the Health Department last night, via EWN:

One hundred and eighteen more South Africans have died after contracting the coronavirus.

This takes the death toll in the country to 21,201.

In the last 24-hours, 3,250 new COVID-19 cases have been detected, bring the total number of cases the outbreak of the pandemic to 775,502.

The active case count is also an important metric to consider.

Yesterday, there were 34 725 cases considered active, and today there are 37 857.

We really, really don’t want a second hard lockdown, or even a return to harsher restrictions, so perhaps now is the time to have a chat with friends and family about what measures you’ll be implementing to try and slow the spread of the virus, and protect those that you come into contact with.

As much as COVID-19 fatigue is understandable (you’re not alone on that front), it appears that we are well and truly back in the trenches.

[sources:wcgov&ewn]