As of Wednesday, August 5 the Western Cape has 9 652 active COVID-19, with a total of 96 446 confirmed cases and 83 529 recoveries.
An additional 29 deaths have been recorded, bringing the total number of COVID-19 related deaths in the province to 3265.
The breakdown by area is as follows:
Stellenbosch testing and triage centre opens:
Today, Health Minister Nomafrench Mbombo opened the new testing and triage centre in Stellenbosch. This is one of 26 of these facilities which have already been completed across the province, with others still under construction. These centres allow hospitals to separate testing and triage from their other healthcare activities. While the province has seen a decline in the number of new cases in certain areas, these centres will still play an important role in testing in the coming months as we expect the virus to be around for many more months.
Minister Mbombo also visited Kayamandi for a community activation aimed at sharing information with community members to help slow the spread.
In addition to the testing centre, work on the first phase of the Sonstraal hospital in Paarl is well underway, with the first 63 additional beds due to come online on August 10.
The Cape Winelands District Municipality has recorded a total of 10 984 infections and 9 526 recoveries – a recovery rate of over 85%.
“I am also pleased to see the increased uptake in the use of quarantine and isolation facilities in the Cape Winelands district over the past few weeks-almost doubling from 29% to 57%. These facilities are an important tool in slowing the spread, creating a safe and comfortable space for people who have tested positive for COVID-19 to isolate or for those who are direct contacts of a positive case, to quarantine. These facilities are especially important if you share your home with anyone who might be high risk- such as an elderly parent, or a loved one with an underlying illness,” Premier Alan Winde said in a statement.
“I call on all residents in this region to work with us to ensure that we are able to slow the spread, save more lives and ensure that we do not have a second wave of infections.
The Cape Winelands is an important farming region in the Western Cape, contributing significantly to our economy, to job creation and to food security in the province. We therefore encourage all businesses to take the necessary precautions to ensure that their staff are kept safe. Slowing the spread of this virus will also allow for more areas of our economy to open up, so that we can avoid the second unemployment pandemic,” Winde added.
Further information on the historical deaths reported on August 4:
On Tuesday, the Western Cape reported 93 additional deaths- with the majority of these being historical deaths which have now been correctly allocated as COVID-19 deaths. These deaths did not occur in hospitals, and as such, our Department of Health may not have picked up a COVID-19 positive result.
These deaths were recorded as follows:
– 4 deaths in May
– 33 deaths in June
– 16 deaths in July
– and 8 deaths in August.
“The Western Cape has been working closely with the NICD, using sophisticated, integrated systems to cross-reference excess reported deaths to determine if they are COVID-19 related in order to ensure that our records are as accurate as possible. As we continue with these processes, we will continue to keep residents informed,” Winde concluded.
Picture: Unsplash
