Masuku: Whole of Gauteng a Covid-19 hotspot
Gauteng Health MEC Bandile Masuku has labelled the whole of the province as a Covid-19 hotspot.
The province overtook the Western Province this week to become the coronavirus epicentre and has more than 53,000 active cases.
Some 3,000 of the patients are currently recovering in hospital.
The province previously indicated that it would explore localised lockdown in order to try curb the spike in infections.
But on Friday Masuku said it would be difficult, as the whole province is a Covid-19 hotspot, and there are no sub-districts without active cases.
"So we treat Gauteng as a hotspot and when we moving from one level to another we are moving as a province, not as a particular subdistrict.”
He admitted that the surge in infections has put the province’s hospitals under strain, but said that progress has been made in the provision of beds.
"Currently we are sitting closer to 11 000 beds that are available to us, that is between us and the private sector.”
Masuku was briefing the media on the Covid-19 situation in the province on Friday afternoon.
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