Please find attached English and isiXhosa soundbites by Siviwe Gwarube MP, DA Shadow Minister of Health.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has welcomed President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement of a risk-adjusted strategy that will see the move from varying stages of lockdown based on infection rates in specific areas. This is in line with DA’s Smart Lockdown Strategy.
This phased approach will balance the need to combat the Covid-19 pandemic and saving lives from hunger and destitution.
This strategy can only work if the Department of Health (DoH) is armed with detailed and region-based statistics. The strategy makes use of data obtained from the health system based on epidemiological trends and risk of infection. Areas which are deemed as hotspots are based on this information and this will guide the level of restrictions which need to be applied. This underscores the need for every single province – not just the top three provinces – to provide the following information on a daily basis:
- Tests conducted per region;
- Confirmed Covid-19 cases per region;
- Number of those who have been hospitalised and those who are in intensive care;
- Health facility and bed capacity for each region;
- Those who have been screened through the community screening programme;
- Health worker audit per region;
- Personal Protective Equipment audit per region;
- The readiness of quarantine facilities per region for those who may require quarantining away from home. This information needs to be provided by Public Works working in close concert with the DoH.
This information needs to be couched on a transparent provincial testing strategy. It is important as we progress with the community screening that we understand who is being screened and what the criteria used is.
I will be raising this matter during the meeting of the portfolio committee of health with the Minister of Health, Dr Zweli Mkhize, on Monday the 27th of April.
The danger of not having this information is clearly demonstrated by the crisis of the Eastern Cape which forced Minister Mkhize to send in a representative of the national Department of Health to monitor the screening and testing strategy. This means that provinces need to provide daily detailed reports not just to the Minister but to the public too. An informed public is one that makes responsible decisions.
The Minister and his team need to insist that all provinces follow the lead of both Gauteng and Western Cape in providing detailed breakdowns of Covid-19 statistics. This is an accountability mechanism for him and for the public.
If we are to move seamlessly between the various lockdown stages then we need to be guided with reliable, updated and detailed data.