The KwaZulu-Natal Health Department and unions have established a personal health and safety committee at Inkosi Albert Luthuli Hospital in Durban to tackle the rise in the number of healthcare workers contracting COVID-19. The Mercury reports that KZN Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane-Zulu was quoted as saying that hospital management and unions had set up the committee to deal with challenges regarding COVID-19 personal protective equipment (PPE) protocols. She said all hospitals should have similar committees in operation and the department would ensure they were established.
Simelane-Zulu confirmed that “about 300-or-so” healthcare workers had been infected with the coronavirus at Inkosi Albert Luthuli Hospital, while the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) put the figure at 331, the report says.
Simelane-Zulu said the department had met hospital management and unions to discuss the issue of PPE, which some staff had complained was lacking. She said a decision had been made to establish a committee to monitor the use of PPE and the department had agreed with unions and management to investigate the use of and availability of PPE in the hospital.
“There is no shortage of PPE in Inkosi Albert Luthuli, and I am saying this categorically – there is no shortage, they have sufficient PPE. The challenge that we have in that particular facility is that there are some healthcare workers that believe that they should be given a particular (type of) PPE that is not in the guidelines… from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases,” she said.
She said the department had last week visited Edendale Hospital in Pietermaritzburg, where dozens of workers had been infected, to check on PPE availability and to establish a personal health and safety committee. The department would check to ensure similar committees at other hospitals were functioning correctly.
Nehawu provincial secretary Ayanda Zulu said the union was concerned about the number of healthcare workers that had been infected at Inkosi Albert Luthuli, Edendale, Stanger and Church of Scotland hospitals, but that it was engaging with the department. Zulu said the committees would play a “crucial” role to ensure health and safety protocols were implemented and the union welcomed PPE-usage training.
KZN Premier Sihle Zikalala is quoted as saying, meanwhile, that the sudden renewed ban on alcohol sales imposed by President Cyril Ramaphosa last week is already yielding results in his province. "We are already starting to see some signs of the easing of pressure on our trauma, accident and emergency units in hospitals, as well as the mortuary admissions of people who died from violent causes," Polity reports Zikalala said.
He said from, 6 July to 12 July, there had been 155 trauma cases in one Durban hospital. "But one week since the reintroduction of the ban on alcohol, from 13 July to 18 July, we only had 120 trauma cases. We expect a further reduction in this regard, the longer the ban continues."
Zikalala said there was also a decrease in serious crime over the last week. "We have always maintained that alcohol is a contributing factor in murders, attempted murders, assaults, rapes and domestic violence. We have seen a reduction in these crimes since the police in the province started enforcing the ban on the sale distribution of alcohol."
More than 1,500 KwaZulu-Natal health workers have been infected with COVID-19 in the province, making up for around 4% of all infections, he said. He added, however, that there was a low mortality rate among healthcare workers, with 12 dying from COVID-19 in the province. "Of the total infected, less than a percentage have succumbed to the disease since the beginning of the pandemic. Nevertheless, those deaths are 12 too many. Again, may their souls rest in peace. We send our deepest condolences to their families."
Updating the public on the province's COVID-19 numbers, Zikalala said the latest stats showed a serious growth in cases. "As predicted, our curve is rising as we continue to see a sustained rate of transmissions in the province, just as in the rest of the country."
"uMgungundlovu District remains the second-highest with COVID-19 cases provincially, and has been receiving a median of 270 cases daily since the beginning of June. eThekwini District has been receiving a median of 781 cases daily since the beginning of June, while Amajuba District has been receiving a median of 60 cases daily within the same period."
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