Image: SINO MAJANGAZA
Museums, schools and training centres will be used as field hospitals to combat the Eastern Cape’s rapidly increasing Covid-19 positive cases.
That was the word from Eastern Cape premier Oscar Mabuyane on Tuesday who said 18 state facilities had been earmarked.
Mabuyane was announcing the province’s community-based Covid-19 rapid response strategy.
The strategy includes containment, the provision of beds, the erection of field hospitals, planning and schools. =
Mabuyane said said nursing colleges in all districts and metros would provide the province with 2,080 beds, including 218 high care beds.
“We plan to have these field hospitals ready soon so that we are able to accommodate more people that will be needing hospitalisation and isolation,” Mabuyane said.
Military personnel will also be deployed to the province’s hotspot area — including Nelson Mandela Bay, the Buffalo City metro and the OR Tambo and Chris Hani districts.
“They will be [stationed] at Dora Nginza, Livingstone, Frere, Nelson Mandela Academic, Frontier, Komani and Tower hospitals to respond to outbreaks and provide others specialised health care to our people,” Mabuyane said.
This comes after Presidenent Cyril Ramaphosa intervened by sending 75 military health professionals, including 20 medical specialists to help bolster efforts to fight the pandemic in the Eastern Cape.
“Our hope to defeat this virus is rejuvenated every day by the valiant fight back of people who continue to recover against this virus in their homes, isolation facilities and in our hospitals.”
On schools, Mabuyane said the province had asked the national government for a deviation when it came to the phasing in of the return to schools.
He said grade R classes would reopen on August 17 with grades 1 and 2 starting on August 10, grades 4, 9 and 10 on July 27 and grades 5 and 8 on August 3.
Education MEC Fundile Gade, who was also at the briefing, said the Eastern Cape was not the only province to have asked for a deviation from the national calendar.
Gade said they had asked the education minister for the deviation based on the rise of infections and change of weather conditions.
On Monday, Gade’s spokesperson, Vuyiseka Mboxela, said the deviation request was for schools that were not ready to open and did not bar those who were ready from going ahead.
On alleged corruption relating to sky-high claims for door-to-door campaign in the OR Tambo area, Mabuyane said: “We were not surprised at all when it happened because we knew there will be chance takers who would use this pandemic to get rich quick.
“Hence from the onset our Provincial Command Council Meeting directed all accounting officers to be on high alert during this time and pay particular attention to procurement related matters.
“I have written to the president asking for the Special Investigating Unit to investigate the allegations that have surfaced in the OR Tambo municipality which include alleged payment of money to service providers that have not done any work.”
“I am happy that the Hawks are on the ground looking into this matter,” he said.