The Western Cape has 11 469 active cases of Covid-19, with a total of 26 386 confirmed cases and 14 917 recoveries as of 4 June. The province has recorded an additional 42 Covid-19 related deaths, bringing the total number of deaths from the virus in the province to 643.
The breakdown of cases is as follows:
The total number of unallocated cases is 1 697 with 512 recoveries.
Premier Alan Winde said in a statement that the Western Cape government plans to adjust their provisioning for the peak of the virus.
“Last week, we released the data from our most recent scenario planning exercise and made the decision that we would adjust our provisioning for the peak of COVID-19 in the province, in accordance with the MASHA model, which is the national epidemiological model. Under this scenario planning exercise- our initial planning projections and the 1428 beds we were able to prepare- will fall short.”
“For this reason, cabinet has now given the go ahead to explore the creation of an additional 800 beds, including the staff to attend to those beds, at CTICC 2. This will give us a cumulative total of 2 227 additional intermediate beds in the system. The CTICC 1 hospital will officially be opened tomorrow. Over the past week, staff have been on site for orientation and the facility will accept its first patients on Monday.
“The Khayelithsa Thusong hospital, built by Medicins Sans Frontiers, is already in operation. Our other planned facilities at Sonstraal in the Cape Winelands, and the 330 bed facility at Brackengate, are also currently under construction.”
The MASA model indicates that there will be a shortage of critical care beds in South Africa and in the Western Cape, as well as a shortage in the availability of ventilators and trained ICU or high care staff.
“In the public sector, we have 135 beds available to us, but this is constrained by the availability of staff, allowing us to only use about 100 of these,” said Winde. “There are plans in place to bring online an additional 100 beds in the public sector, and plans are now underway to contract additional beds for public sector patients in the private sector.”
“The Western Cape Government is currently in the process of negotiating to contract 300 private ICU or high care beds after a tariff agreement was reached yesterday between the private sector and the National Minister of Health. Critical care beds will however remain under pressure in the Western Cape which is why the province is taking steps to protect the most high risk groups, and why it is vitally important that everyone play their part in slowing the spread of this virus, especially to protect those most vulnerable, including the elderly and those with co- morbidities.”
The province currently has 3 848 beds available in both private and government owned facilities, with a further 9 682 ready for activation (8 933 in private sector and 749 in public). An additional 788 beds are available for those who have the capacity to pay for quarantine and isolation facilities.
“We are currently looking at ways to ramp up the available facilities- using both provincially or municipally owned facilities as well as turn-key solutions such as hotels and the hospitality industry.”
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