DA calls for transparency on East Cape Covid-19 data

A moratorium on all funerals, ramp up screening and testing, a public daily data dashboard, fill all vacant funded posts and fire health MEC  Sindiswa Gomba.

This is a snapshot of the DA’s plan in the Eastern Cape to flatten the Covid-19 curve in the province announced during a Zoom media conference on Monday.

DA Eastern Cape provincial leader Nqaba Bhanga said if the provincial government put such recommendations in place, the Eastern Cape could turn the corner.

On Monday afternoon, there were 774 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the Eastern Cape.

Bhanga said there was a need for urgent interventions in the province to save lives.

“A lack of decisive provincial leadership has resulted in a frantic, scrambled and largely reactive rollout of measures to curb the transmission of the virus,” he said.

Bhanga said there had been huge gaps with a lack of data on screening, testing, tracking and tracing.

“Communication of statistics is irregular and inconsistent, which hampers planning an effective response.”

He said the screening and testing strategy had been poorly managed, resulting in a low testing rate.

“To date, the province has only tested 17,749 people. The province should be testing at double this rate to achieve meaningful results.”

To slow the spread of the virus, he suggested the provincial government:

• Ramp up screening and testing efforts using a targeted approach;
• Develop a daily data dashboard, which is updated in real-time. This dashboard should break data down to subdistrict and municipal level and must be accessible to the public;
• Fill all vacant funded posts as soon as possible and request extra capacity from a national level to boost the response;
• Place a moratorium on all funerals and only allow 10 or less close family members to attend a sacred burial ceremony that complies with social distancing protocols until such time as larger gatherings are permitted;
• Remove Gomba as the health MEC.

Eastern Cape premier Oscar Mabuyane said the provincial government had adopted a proactive approach that sought to attacks the virus.

“The competency of the MEC can only be used as a scorecard and what we are doing is a barometer of her competency. It can’t be an emotional thing,” he said, addressing the DA’s call for Gomba’s removal.

He urged residents to support the provincial government including Gomba.

“We want to appeal to people to support us. This is not a health matter but a societal matter.

“She has just had less than a year in this position and we happened to be tested with the spread of cornovirus,

“She is the leader in that sector now and we have to have confidence [in her].”

Mabuyane said massive testing was taking place in the province.

“A single person is a hotspot. We need to lock down the environment. If it is a village, we will do that,” he said.

Mabuyane said people infected in the province were recovering, which was a good sign.

“That makes us feel better.”

Meanwhile, DA MP Siviwe Gwarube said during the briefing that there was a need for accurate, constant and credible data.

“In a pandemic such as this, transparency is important.”

DA MPL Jane Cowley said such data would allow the province to tackle areas where the infection rate was highest.

“The co-ordination of statistics has at best been done poorly. We need to adopt a bush-fire strategy and find where the most cases are and send the relevant resources.”