Virus: we are very worried about ability of EC, admits premier Mabuyane

The Eastern Cape government says it is concerned about its ability to deal with the envisaged outbreak of coronavirus, especially in rural parts of the province.

Speaking at the Bhisho legislature on Monday, premier Oscar Mabuyane said his  government was nervous as the province was vulnerable.

“I can tell you now that if this pandemic gets to our shores, we will find it very difficult to contain it. We are also dealing with issues of infrastructure at our health facilities. Once this hits our province it will be very difficult, especially in rural areas, knowing the set-up and environment of those places.

“We are in a predicament. This is a tough situation for the economy of the province,” he added.

He was addressing the media alongside legislature speaker Helen Sauls-August and health MEC Sindiswa Gomba.

One of the steps the provincial government is taking is setting up roadblocks from Tuesday at all points of entry into the province.

There will be testing for the virus at these roadblocks. Screening equipment has been allocated for these purposes.

“We are putting roadblocks at the points that connect to the Eastern Cape. We want to man them using a three-phased approach: police, traffic and the SANDF,” Gomba said.

“Second we have ports that we need to look at. East London and Port Elizabeth ports need to have the same kind of system, where people are tested as they arrive,” Gomba said.

She said because the provinces bordering the Eastern Cape already had confirmed cases, “it is critical to ensure that we have bilateral agreements with these provinces, because they also would not want our people to enter their provinces and add to the numbers We would not want the same”.

While Mabuyane said the province was ready to deal with any positive cases, he was concerned at the ailing healthcare infrastructure in rural parts.

Mabuyane said the provincial government had consulted with all the provincial districts to find co-ordinated ways on how to deal with the pandemic, once it hit the province.

Even though a number of people in the province had been tested for the virus, Mabuyane said that so far there had been no positive results.

“We are doing everything possible in our power to ensure that we contain it. We want to make it a point that we keep it away as much as we can from our people.”  

The province has 38 laboratories to test for the virus, with the three main ones in Port Elizabeth, East London and Mthatha, but Mabuyane said he was still concerned that the Eastern Cape did not have equipment that could give test results immediately.

People have to wait for 48 hours for test results.

One of the measures the provincial government is implementing, is the establishment of tents to act as field hospitals if needed.

“We will assign professional nurses to work in the field hospitals. Two thousand nurses will be trained and we will appoint unemployed nurses on a one-year contract,” Mabuyane said.

“All health workers will be given personal protective equipment, such as the N95 masks, gloves, plastic aprons to use when treating those being tested, or people showing symptoms of the coronavirus. We are preparing hospitals to be ready for the treatment of severe cases and we are creating space to manage pneumonia and other severe cases.”

Government would also ensure that there was enough food stocks in all health centres.

“We will add more water tanks and soap for people to wash their hands as required.”

Mabuyane said government would look at its financial resources to finance the response to the pandemic, while a 'nerve-centre', to be administered by his office, would also be established.

Sauls-August said following President Cyril Ramaphosa's announcement on Sunday on measures to prevent the spread of the virus, the legislature had been forced to review its planned public events, including the Raymond Mhlaba memorial lecture, scheduled for this week.

She said all the events would currently be postponed for 30 days.