As South Africa braces for an onslaught of COVID-19 infections, the state is moving to establish 1,644 emergency field hospitals and quarantine sites to shield a health-care system short of critical-care beds and ventilators, says a Sunday Times report. A total of 2,000 beds for quarantine patients are being installed at the Nasrec centre in Johannesburg – which is being retrofitted to accommodate patients – and three acute facilities under construction in the Western Cape.
The report says Gauteng and the Western Cape appear to be furthest along, but provincial health departments in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape said plans were being drawn up, ushering in the next stage of the fight against the pandemic as lockdown restrictions are eased.
The Health Department told parliament's health portfolio committee that plans are under way to have a national capacity of 7,356 field hospital beds by the time infections peak – which the ministerial advisory committee forecasts will be between July and September, at an anticipated 78,000 infections. Some field hospitals will be built from the ground up, but others will involve adapting buildings to accommodate the sick.
The report says public health and infectious disease experts hope field hospitals will help cover the chink in the health-care system's armour – a dire shortage of critical-care beds and ventilators.
No fewer than 22 Eastern Cape hospitals are being revamped to meet required health standards to fight COVID-19, says a Daily Dispatch report. The revamp, at hospitals in Buffalo City and Nelson Mandela metros and Sarah Baartman, Amathole, Alfred Nzo, Joe Gqabi, Chris Hani and OR Tambo districts, involve wards being turned into single isolation rooms and the addition of new ablution facilities.
Among the hospitals are Frere, Port Elizabeth Provincial, Midlands, Madalweni, Taylor Bequest, Aliwal North, Cradock and Silimela. Work at some of the hospitals started last week. The report says the project is worth millions of rands, but the final cost will only be known when the work is complete.
Judy Ngoloyi, spokesperson for provincial health MEC Sindiswa Gomba, said the purpose of the revamp was to ensure effective quarantine and isolation should there be a need. “The department plans to procure 2,000 additional beds, of which 240 will be high care and ICU beds. There are wards which are being revamped in preparation for occupation by COVID-19 confirmed cases,” Ngoloyi said.
Funding had come from the national disaster relief fund and a special allocation from provincial treasury, she said. “A lot of factors have been considered, but importantly access, number of beds, bed occupancy and availability of clinical personnel,” she said.
[link url="https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times/news/2020-04-19-sa-set-for-mass-quarantine-as-covid-19-peak-edges-closer/"]Full report The Times[/link]
[link url="https://www.dispatchlive.co.za/news/2020-04-16-coronavirus-spurs-urgent-upgrades-at-22-eastern-cape-hospitals/"]Full Daily Dispatch report[/link]