Oscar Mabuyane worried about impact of virus on rural communities

The Eastern Cape government is anxious about Covid-19 reaching the province and its rural areas.

Speaking at a media briefing at midday on Monday, premier Oscar Mabuyane said there were concerns over the virus reaching the most vulnerable in the province as he believed the government was not fully equipped to deal with it should  people in the rural areas be infected.

“The issue of infrastructure in the province is a problem and this is why we’re nervous, that if this thing comes into our province, it’ll be very difficult to contain knowing the setup of our rural areas,” Mabuyane said.

The premier, who was joined by health MEC Sindiswa Gomba and Eastern Cape legislature speaker Helen Sauls-August, emphasised there were no Covid-19 cases in the province as yet.

“There was a voice note that was circulated in the province making claims that a person who was a guest at one of the hotels showed symptoms of the coronavirus.

“The provincial government and the hotel guest worked together for his medical tests, and results came back negative,” Mabuyane said.

“The testing of this person was possible because the provincial government, led by the department of health, has already activated resources and systems to test and treat those who may be infected,” he said.

He announced that roadblocks would be set up at points of entry in the province, such as road entry points, landing ports of entry and airports,  and that screening kits would be allocated to each roadblock.

Speaking about measures to treat people, he said: “We will use marquee facilities as field hospitals.

“We will assign professional nurses from the system to work in field hospitals to provide care to the patients; get 1,000 nursing assistants for a period of 12 months; train 2,000 professional nurses; and appoint unemployed nurses on a one-year contract.

“All health workers working on this pandemic will be given Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) such as N95 masks, gloves and plastic aprons to use when treating persons under investigations or people showing symptoms of the coronavirus.

“We are preparing hospitals to be ready for the treatment of severe cases, and we are creating space to manage pneumonia and other severe cases.

“We have 38 laboratories in the province that we will use for testing coronavirus.

“We have three main laboratories in Port Elizabeth, East London and in Mthatha,” he said.

The Eastern Cape was strongly reliant on the manufacturing industry in terms of driving the economy, Mabuyane said.

Because of this, discussions were being held  with industry role players, he said.

“The inevitable effect will be on the economy.

“Almost 90% of products produced in the automotive sector are exported outside the country.

“We’ve got a plan to make sure measures the government has put in place will be followed.

“We don’t want to see people being jobless so consultations will take place and a more comprehensive response will follow,” he said.

Asked if the province had sufficient supplies and equipment to deal with the virus should it hit the province, Gomba said more would be procured.