The Western Cape Health Department may be spared the cost of referring state patients to private hospitals if the region’s apparent decline in coronavirus infections continues, Business Day reports it has emerged. After an initially rapid rise in COVID-19 cases, Cape Town is now seeing hospital admissions and deaths stabilising and the first signs of a possible decline, said Western Cape head of health Keith Cloete. His observations echo those of medical scheme administrator Discovery Health, which last week said it saw indications that the province’s epidemic may have reached its peak.
A similar trend is also seen in the weekly death reports from the Medical Research Council (MRC), said Cloete. The MRC’s latest weekly death report shows fatalities from natural causes – including COVID-19 – have steadily declined in the Western Cape over the past month.
The province has so far referred four patients to private hospitals, and this has been done to test its systems, not because it has run out of beds, said Cloete. All the requisite contracts are, however, in place should private hospital beds be required, he said.
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