Africa-Press – South-Africa. CAPE TOWN – Almost half of the national total hospital admissions for Covid-19 infections have been recorded in Gauteng.
For the past two weeks, the province has experienced an increase in Covid-19 cases, driving the third wave of infections nationally, as it experiences a sustained increase in coronavirus cases and hospital admissions.
More than 3 000 people are are in the province’s public and private facilities, with 747 in ICU and 316 people on life support. Nationally there are about 6 727 hospital admissions.
With the province leading the uptick in Covid-19 cases nationally, Gauteng Premier David Makhura said the increase in admissions were severe and put hospitals under pressure.
He warned that, with inadequate supply of power and electricity in the battle against Covid-19, the situation would worsen.
Netcare chief executive Richard Friedland said Netcare’s hospitals were under pressure as they were seeing a significant rise in hospital admissions.
“Here in Gauteng, in terms of active cases, we’re now approximately 50% of where we were in the second wave. We are seeing a significant rise in hospital admissions across all private and public facilities in the province. Fortunately, I think we have a very good oxygen supply and 80% of health-care workers have been vaccinated,” Friedland told ENCA.
The province has recorded more than 476 000 infections, averaging more than 2 000 cases a day over the past week and accounting for 52% of the cases countrywide.
There are 103 vaccination sites in the province, 63 of which are in the public sector.
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