As South Africa’s health system strains under the weight of the second wave of Covid-19 infections, it will soon have a welcome boost in resources with 2,367 medical interns and 1,693 medical community service practitioners, reports IOL.
At a National Coronavirus Command Council briefing last week, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said they would form part of the 7,895 community service workforce.
“We are concerned by the rise in the number of professionals becoming infected with Covid during the second wave. We continue to engage the unions and apprise them on this plan and our response to health and safety issues,” Mkhize said.
According to the Democratic Nursing Organisation of SA (Denosa) over 41,000 healthcare workers have been infected in both first and second waves, and at least 400 deaths reported.
Mkhize said the government had made huge efforts to secure PPEs (personal protective equipment) for all health-care workers. He said the availability of PPEs was above 87%, covering all the facilities that have been audited.
The overall positivity rate for newly tested individuals was 32.9% with Western Cape recording 45%, followed by Limpopo at 41%, KwaZulu-Natal at 36% and Mpumalanga with 33%.
“This increase in positivity shows us that we have a fast growing epidemic. The positivity rates are a major concern as we used to have 10% and less, Mkhize said.
There were currently 11,256 patients in hospital with 3,543 on oxygen and 604 on ventilators.
[link url="https://www.iol.co.za/capetimes/news/health-system-given-huge-boost-of-4000-fresh-young-doctors-7b12701e-65b1-4680-9634-7f4114d3e92e"]Full IOL report[/link]