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The Eastern Cape provincial government said it would embark on mass testing, screening, tracking and tracing of people who had come into contact with people infected by the coronavirus.
And, according to the spokesperson for the office of the Premier, Mvusiwekhaya Sicwetsha, authorities would also begin to enforce the mandatory wearing of cloth masks in public places, including public transport, to prevent the spread of COVID-19 infections in the province.
“There are currently 108 313 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the province, 94 799 of those people have since recovered and sadly, 4 054 people have died from COVID-19 related illnesses,” he said.
“The daily epidemiological report from the Eastern Cape Provincial Department of Health issued last night (15 November 2020 at 23:00) shows that in the last 24 hours 78.4% of the newly reported cases were from the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro and Sarah Baartman district municipalities.”
Sicwetsha said the epidemiological report goes further to say, that the number of active cases in the last 24 hours was 9 460 and that 89.7% of all the active cases were from the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro and Sarah Baartman municipalities,” he said.
He said according to the epidemiological report, the 7-day moving average shows a 34.5% increase in the positivity rate from 20.0% to 26.9% in the last 13 days.
Sicwetsha said the province would receive additional testing resources from the national government, personnel for tracking and tracing to help us with mass testing and screening.
“Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize will announce more details on this during his visit to the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro and Sarah Baartman this week,” he added.
