Saul calls meeting to address rising Covid-19 infections in NC

NORTHERN Cape Premier, Dr Zamani Saul, called a meeting of the Provincial Command Council on Friday morning in the wake of reports that the Province is one of three provinces that is responsible for the increase in the number of Covid 19 cases nationally.

Professor Salim Abdool Karim, co-director of the Covid ministerial advisory council, said in an interview with eNCA on Thursday evening that since October 1, South Africa had shown a slow and steady increase in the number of Covid 19 cases nationally.

“But there are three provinces that are responsible for that increase,” Karim added. “These three province that are contributing the most to that increase are firstly the Free State, which has more cases per day than the Western Cape. The second is the Western Cape, which is showing the fastest increase in the number of cases, and the third is the Northern Cape.”

“We have to be particularly vigilant and re-emphasise the need for protection in these three provinces if we want to bring the trend back to normal,” Karim said.

The Northern Cape Premier said on Friday that, in his capacity as the Chairperson of the Provincial Command Council (PCC), he had convened a PCC meeting, where members of the council were updated on the developments in the Province’s response to the virus.

“The PCC noted reports from the different sector departments on measures put forth to ensure that together we curb the spread of this virus.”

Saul added that the Province was working together with the World Health Organisation (WHO) to put together a plan that would combat the resurgence of the virus.

“The WHO has allocated three team members who arrived in the Province on October 9 to support us in the areas of epidemiology, surveillance, case management, coordination, supply chain management, human resources training and environmental health.”

Saul stated that the team had spent the past few weeks examining the Province’s processes and systems. “They have expressed satisfaction in the way we are doing our work.”

He added that a resurgence plan would be drafted and consulted with stakeholder departments to ensure role clarification and improved coordination.

“The Lockdown Level 1 has brought about a great deal of fatigue of the virus amongst our communities, but unfortunately the virus is not fatigued and is being spread by us. We encourage the community to continue observing the Covid-19 protocols, which are washing of hands for 20 seconds with soap and water or using hand sanitiser, wearing your face mask and maintaining social distance.”