Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize said there was an urgent need to iron out any issues which could hinder the fight against COVID-19 in Eastern Cape.
The Minister returned to the province on Tuesday amid a surge in positive COVID-19 cases in a number of districts and sub-districts, which he said contributed to a 50% spike in week-to-week numbers.
The Health Department said this prompted urgent action by Dr Mkhize who met with Eastern Cape government officials to discuss an action plan to deal with the rising case numbers.
"There was a time when the whole country was going to through a surge and the numbers came down into a plateau. Most provinces that still have high numbers, they are basically still trying to come down from their first wave; but Eastern Cape is different," Mkhize said in a statement.
"We are now starting to get new cluster outbreaks. There are cluster outbreaks that we have to manage aggressively. If we don’t do so, that is the beginning of the pandemic getting out of control. It is still very possible that we can suppress this wave and therefore delay the resurgence."
Minister Mkhize also received reports from various municipalities as well as from the provincial health department which focussed on the epidemiology of the virus in the province.
"We do need to go out into the community and try to reduce this as much as possible,” he said, urging the public to continue to adhere to safety protocols including the wearing of face masks in public and practising social distancing."
Mkhize said urgent steps that need to be taken include the reinforcement of staff, with Cuban doctors and Doctors Without Borders and also beefing up the nursing compliment through recruitment.
He said staff exhaustion was also a concern, but the Health Minister said he was happy that the matter of PPE’s for health staff was no longer an issue.
Mkhize called on the public to adhere to regulations that include wearing of masks in public and social distancing where non-compliance was cited as the main cause for the current surge in cases.
Figures released by the National Health Department on Monday show that the total number of cases in the Eastern Cape to date was 108 993, with 96 300 recoveries, 8 607 active cases and 4 086 Covid19-related deaths.
