Mkhize ‘in talks with Cogta’ amid spike in Covid-19 numbers
Health Minister Zweli Mkhize says he’s in talks with Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma on measures to mitigate the spread of Covid-19.
This comes as concerns over a spike in infections in parts of South Africa.
The Eastern Cape and the Western Cape are already facing a resurgence of cases.
Mkhize visited the Eastern Cape for a 2-day inspection of the province’s health facilities.
“In the Eastern Cape we have been in touch with the premier who couldn’t join us but as we walked around with the MECs, we have also had meetings where we involved some of the national departments, in particular Cogta and the Minister of Cogta, just to share ideas on what would need to be done,” he said on Friday.
Since the start of the lockdown in March, Cooperative Governance has spearheaded government’s response to the pandemic.
Mkhize said the year-end festivities would likely add to the rising numbers.
“We are concerned, if we look at the fact that we are now entering the festive season that the numbers might start rising as a result of the practices that are associated with the festive season where people come together and congregate in groups, tend to celebrate, have parties and quite often in close proximity.
“As we have observed for the past few months now people have not been adhering to the use of masks and distancing and even some sharing items that have got a potential to spread the infection, like those who share glasses, share cigarettes and share beer bottles and so on. So these issues are our concern as we move towards the festive season.”
ALSO READ:
Makhura concerned over increase in corruption in Gauteng govt
Premier David Makhura told members of the provincial legislature on Friday that corruption is "rearing its ugly head again". The premier was presenting his end-of-year report to a virtual sitting of the Gauteng legislature on Friday morning.
The country now has 781 941 cumulative cases after 337 new cases were recorded in the 24 hours leading up to Friday.
“And of those, almost 45 percent are coming from the Eastern Cape. The next highest is Western Cape.
“These two provinces are going to be the ones that are increasingly driving the new numbers so we will continue to deal with this.
“As it stands Nelson Mandela [Bay] tends to have very close to half of the numbers of positive cases that we have in the Eastern Cape area,” Mkhize added.
According to Mkhize, the province has the capacity to manage the resurgence of cases.
