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Eastern Cape Premier, Lubabalo Mabuyane, said that there was a glimmer of hope for the province as the number of people who recovered from Covid19 stood at 89.6%, compared to a 52% recovery rate as at 1 July.
Mabuyane was in Nelson Mandela Bay again on Tuesday to inspect the work underway to improve health facilities in the Metro as well as the provision of oxygen supplies to both Dora Nginza and Livingstone Hospitals.
He also witnessed the opening of a VWSA sponsored laboratory upgrade at the National Health Laboratory Services in Port Elizabeth, where the German company also handed over a consignment of Personal Protective Equipment to the provincial Health Department.
In his speech at that event, Premier Mabuyane further noted that the recovery rate in all districts in the province was “above 80%.”
“We have instructed our teams to ascertain how more than 71 420 people who were infected with the virus defeated it without being hospitalised. This is crucial information we must have at our disposal going into the peak months of this virus,” the Premier said.
Mabuyane said in essence, the Eastern Cape Province was currently dealing with just over 6 465 active cases now and the majority of these were in Nelson Mandela Bay and Buffalo City Metro.
“Our teams are working around the clock attending to these cases,” he said.
The Premier said that the second positive trend that provided “another glimmer of hope is the decrease in the number of new cases per day which is less than 1000.”
He said this reduction was observed in all districts in the province where Buffalo City Metro had a 49.8% reduction in the number of newly reported cases, followed by OR Tambo (41.1%), Sarah Baartman (40.0%), NMB Metro (35.9%).
However, Premier Mabuyane said some worrying negative trends are also being addressed by the recently appointed Project Management Unit.
These include emerging cases of the virus in Frail Care Centres and Prisons while the number of healthcare workers who tested positive stood at 4 631, the majority of them being nurses.
The Premier said the PMU was also seized with filling vacancies adding that to date there had been 7000 appointments made against the planned 7 652 posts to be funded from the Covid-19 conditional grant.
He said 228 out of the 508 staff vacancies for Phase 1, including CEO positions, have been filled.
