Today I was informed that the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) request for the Health Committee to meet had been granted and that it will take place imminently.
This is good news and the DA will use this opportunity to seek urgent answers about the lack of provincial statistics with their regional breakdown from the provinces.
With the exception of the Western Cape Department of Health, we are yet to see a clear and accurate breakdown of Covid-19 cases and daily infections by regions in the other 8 provinces, which can be done by geo-mapping technology.
See an example of the Western Cape breakdown here.
This raises the serious question of whether this information does exist in the various provinces and if it does not, does this threaten the integrity of the national statistics?
While certain information can be kept from the public due to clinical sensitivity, there is no reason why the other provinces cannot publicize this information like the Western Cape does daily. It is a useful tool for public education and aids in the efforts of keeping citizens informed.
It is also in the public interest to know where the outbreak is most severe, where it is declining and where it may be rising. We should also be updated every day how many people are hospitalized with Covid-19 in each province.
Another key questions that the Minister of Health, Dr Zweli Mkhize, will need to answer will be on the critical shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) for frontline health workers and the capacity levels for each province to deal with this pandemic. In my letter to Minister Mkhize on the 31st of March addressing the shortage of PPE across the country, I urged him to have greater oversight on the provinces and their capacity levels. We can ill-afford mistakes and shortcomings.
In addition, all DA members of provincial legislatures have requested urgent meetings from the Chairpersons of Health portfolio committees. While some have received positive feedback, others are still waiting. We are monitoring this closely.
The health response in this pandemic has been commendable and continues to be. However, we remain concerned about provincial health departments’ capacity to deal with rising numbers of infections, fatalities and the equipping facilities and healthcare workers sufficiently to deal with this pandemic. This is why this meeting of the portfolio committee will be critical to ascertain these details. This is an important step in the fight against this pandemic. The legislative arm of our country must exercise its crucial role of representing the people of this country.