Simelane-Zulu identifies funerals as COVID-19 superspreader events in KZN

The province’s departmental heads briefed Parliament’s health portfolio committee on healthcare services in relation to COVID-19.

The KwaZulu-Natal province has the second largest cases in the country after Gauteng province.

As per the latest COVID-19 regulations, no more than 50 people are allowed to attend a funeral.

Simelane-Zulu says infection rates lowered after the province cancelled most annual events, however, most people still fail to adhere to regulations and protocols at funerals.

“This year the province had to cancel many events and as a result, we did not have many infections, however, we subsequently saw that funerals in our province became the source of super spreader events in a sense that some of the areas were not adhering to the time given for a funeral and regulations in other areas not even to the numbers of people that were expected to be at the funeral according to the regulations.

"We had to bring in the security cluster to implement what was regulated, but in other areas, there had been reluctant in terms of cutting down night vigils and in those events there has been a lot of spreading of the virus,” says Simelane-Zulu.

Listen to Simelane-Zulu below

She believes people are starting to listen now.

There has been a lot of misinformation and fake news regarding COVID-19 and the vaccine.

She says the province has also had the challenge of false information on COVID-19 spreading at an alarming rate.

“In  the province we have been inundated with the number of misinformation in relation to the vaccine and in relation to what causes the high rate of deaths, there has been fake news saying people should not allow 5G towers to be put up as they are contributing to the virus,” she says.

She says the province is using local media to address the fake news and share information in the language the citizens understand.

One of the challenges the province faces is oxygen supply.

Simelane-Zulu says the supplier of oxygen, Afrox, is having a challenge and cannot meet the demand.

“They have not had enough staff as a result in some facilities we are unable to get the cylinders that we have ordered or the amount of oxygen that has been ordered but we have been engaging with Afrox to address the problem and find other ways.

"We have also put in place measures to arrange transport in areas where Afrox cannot reach, we decided that we should look at other role players in the market, it might not be big but it will reduce the burden."

The province is exploring alternatives.

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