IN QUOTES | Sihle Zikalala on booze ban, unallocated cases & contact tracing in KZN

KwaZulu-Natal premier Sihle Zikalala provided an update on the province’s response to Covid-19 on Sunday.

During the media briefing he expressed support for the reintroduction on the ban of the sale and distribution of alcohol.

He said on Sunday there were 401 deaths and 10,624 recoveries in the province.

Booze ban

“We reiterate the decision by the national coronavirus command council to ban with immediate effect the sale of alcohol and the introduction of the 9pm to 4am curfew. Since this announcement, our key analysis indicates the decision was correct. We are already seeing some signs of the easing of pressure on our trauma, accidents and emergency units in hospitals.”

Fighting Covid-19

“As the KwaZulu-Natal government, we will ensure the implementation of the announcements by the president. This will be our contribution to the reduction in the rate of infection and to ensure beds in our provincial care facilities are used to assist the sick.”

Increase in cases

“Our curve is rising as we continue to see a sustained rate of transmission in the province, just as in the rest of the country. KwaZulu-Natal has had 37,287 positive cases, of which more than 26,000 were still active cases. Sadly, we had 121 new deaths this week.”

Unallocated cases 

“The mushrooming of private laboratories continues to be a challenge in the province. Some of these do not complete demographic details of patients, including residential address, telephone numbers and facility names. As a result, the province is experiencing an increase in a number of unallocated cases.”

Ventilation and ICU patients 

“By July 17, the province had more than 1,100 patients admitted in private hospitals and 410 in public hospitals. Of those admitted, 260 required intensive care services, with 145 of those ventilated.”

Health care workers 

“Among the 37,287 cases in KwaZulu-Natal, 5% are health care workers. About 60% of the infections of health care workers are nurses. Of the total infected, less than 1% have succumbed to the disease since the beginning of the pandemic.”

Contact tracing

“KwaZulu-Natal has managed to identify 32,618 contacts and monitor 90% of them. The positivity rate among the contacts was 3, 2%. Ugu and Umzinyathi have the highest proportion of contacts who tested positive.”