Health minister Zweli Mkhize on Friday night announced that his team would be conducting “oversight visits” in both the Eastern Cape and Western Cape over the weekend, while the president would visit next week, after the two provinces recorded the highest number of new Covid-19 cases.
South Africa’s confirmed Covid-19 cases were 8,895, up 663 from the previous day, with 17 new fatalities, bringing the national death toll to 178.
These were the biggest single-day increases reported since the start of the Covid-19 outbreak in the country.
Mkhize said that while the Western Cape had more than half of South Africa’s coronavirus cases the national government needed to “understand the dynamics driving the epidemic” in the regions.
He noted that interprovincial travel between the two provinces has been an issue.
“We will be embarking on oversight visits to the Eastern Cape and Western Cape this weekend. These will be followed by presidential visits to both provinces later next week. The provinces have recorded the two highest new cases in the past 24 hours with the Western Cape accounting for 76% of new cases and the Eastern Cape accounting for 9% of new cases. In addition, the Western Cape has just over 50% of the Covid-19 burden in SA, recording the highest deaths as well.
“With interprovincial movement between these provinces being an issue, it will be crucial for us to understand the dynamics driving the epidemic in this region and assist where necessary. We know that a lot of good work has been done by the leadership of these provinces. We also acknowledge the commitment and hard work of our health professionals and front-line workers- both in public and private sectors. We look forward to bolstering the efforts already in place to curb further spread of Covid-19,” said Mkhize.
Earlier this week accusations were cast by the Eastern Cape health department who pointed fingers at the Western Cape provincial government after commuters travelling from the province were intercepted and placed in quarantine, with more than 80 testing positive for Covid-19 to date.
The Eastern Cape currently has 989 confirmed Covid-19 cases while the Western Cape has 4,497.
By LUKE CHARTER – DispatchLIVE
