GCIS EC
Eastern Cape Premier, Lubabalo Mabuyane, is mooting a total shutdown in the province in the last week of the 21-day lockdown.
This, in a bid to curb the rising number of covid19 cases in the province.
He said they were busy tracing people who attended two funerals in recent weeks, one in Port St Johns and the other in Nelson Mandela Bay Metro, from where the rising number of cases appear to be emerging.
Speaking to the media via video conference on Thursday, Premier Mabuyane noted that the relaxation of some of the lockdown regulations was also having an impact on their ability to contain the spread of covid19.
He said Bhisho was talking to the national government to consider what he said would a total "shutdown", particularly in rural and township areas where they are finding it difficult.
Mabuyane said even if this meant that there would be "ghost towns for a few days".
"I believe what we are trying to do, relaxing the guidelines and regulations, it’s good for people because they are complaining, but it's not good for the work that we are trying to do to make it a point that we are flattening the curve," he said.
The Premier also warned that there was a “serious exponential growth” in the numbers of infections in the province but said this is what was anticipated.
“We are seeing cases spiking in areas like Nelson Mandela Bay and Buffalo City, which are both tourist destinations. We are doing everything possible as a provincial government, embarking on a number of campaigns in ensuring that we intensify our awareness programme,” he said.
“We have launched our mass screening and testing programme in Nelson Mandela Bay, targeting what we see as hotspots.
“So, we are actually making it a point that every stakeholder is involved in the decisions we make including the suspension of initiation schools during the lockdown”.
“We see that the situation is getting serious day by day. We have prepared our health centres, from hospitals to clinics to ensure they are able to respond to this,” he said.
Mabuyane acknowledged that there were “teething problems here and there in getting our systems responding appropriately to what we want to see in attending to these cases.”
He said they were ensuring that there were places available to quarantine any cases and that there will be sufficient hospital beds to admit patients.
The Premier said that measures are also in place to ensure that all health workers have access to personal protective clothing.
“I've been talking to CEO's, the Health MEC and the HOD to ensure that every employee has the "basic" personal protective equipment as outlined by the World Health Organisation.
