File
Eastern Cape Premier, Oscar Mabuyane, said on Tuesday that there was no food shortage in Eastern Cape Hospitals.
He was reacting to reports that several hospitals in the Province were running out of food and comments from the humanitarian organisation Gift of the Givers that it was assisting 42 hospitals in the province with food and other aid.
Last week the organisation opened its first warehouse in the Eastern Cape in East London and subsequent television news footage showed rows of state vehicles lined up to receive supplies.
Addressing a media briefing on the province’s efforts to mitigate the spread of Covid-19 on Tuesday, Mabuyane said emphatically that “there are no food shortages in our hospitals.”
“Food, water, medicines are non-negotiables and government always makes budgetary provisions to have enough supply of these items. From time to time our social partners such as Give of Givers would donate items to our health department to support us. That does not mean there is a shortage of essential supplies,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mabuyane said their latest data showed that the province was currently utilising 10 % of its Covid-19 beds at state hospitals, while there was low demand for oxygen.
He said the number of active cases “currently stands at 6 368, with over two-thousand cases recorded on 12 December."
“Our two Metros, Nelson Mandela Metro and BCM account for 50.1 % of our active cases and that means residents in both Metros must take extra care of their health during this festive season,” Mabuyane said.
He said with the emergence of the Omicron variant, his big concern going into the festive season was "the unvaccinated."
In an effort to increase the number of vaccinations from the current 20 000 a day to 40 000 to achieve herd immunity, Mabuyane said the campaign will be decentralised to rope in mayors, traditional leaders, business, and civil society to spread the province’s vaccination message.
