North West registers lowest daily cases of Covid-19 but cautions public of possible resurgence
The North West Department of Health is pleased to inform the public that the number of new daily cases of COVID-19 have decreased substantially though there is a need to continue to be on guard, to adhere to preventative measures and to vaccinate in order to prevent possible resurgence. The Province was declared to have been out of the devastating third wave last month.
The third wave was severe in a sense that there was significant increase on new daily COVID-19 cases in the Province, the cases of hospitalisation also increased substantially. This was evidenced by the fact that hospitals like Klerksdorp-Tshepong, Wesvaal and Job Shimankana Tabane Hospital had to avail more bed space. Certain wards which were used during the first wave but later closed after the situation stabilised towards the end of last year had to be reactivated to create more bed space.
No doubt the impact of COVID-19 has been felt and as a result saw increased hospitalisation, increased mortality rates, mental health problems, substance abuse and resurgent of non-communicable diseases.
Clearly the prolonged effects of lockdown on psychosocial support services resulted in the outbursts of uncertainties, acute panic, fear, depression, obsessive behaviors, social unrests, stigmatization, anxiety and increased gender-based violence cases which all have replicating effects on health.
“I applaud our officials particularly in health facilities that had increased admissions due to COVID-19. We handled the third wave very well and many lives were saved”, said MEC Madoda Sambatha
During the height of the third wave the Province had almost reached 2000 new daily cases while active cases had surpassed 9000 around mid June.
However the beginning of the month of October we had around 2800 active cases while new daily cases were 77. Since then there has been a significant drop both of the active cases and the new daily cases. As at Monday 08 November the active cases had further dropped to 747 while the new daily cases had dropped to 7.
“The good news is that we have now emerged out of the third wave of the
COVID-19 pandemic. Heading into the festive season, the public need to be cautioned of reckless behavior that could set us back”, said MEC Sambatha Members of the public are therefore urged to remain calm, adhere to preventative measures and vaccinate to avoid hospitalisation and reduce the chances ofdeath.
“Though the Province has improved from being among the bottom three to be in top six, it is still concerning that the vaccination uptake is not picking up speed as expected. We have a target of 2.69 million people that we need to reach to achieve population immunity yet we are still to reach half of this target since the start of the vaccination rollout programme. We need to continue to encourage people to vaccinate”, concluded MEC Sambatha.
Enquiries:
Tebogo Lekgethwane
Cell: 067 422 7763
Motlalepula Lekoma
Cell: 082 089 7117
