Western Cape premier wants flags to fly at half-mast for Covid-19 dead

Flags should be flown at half-mast every Wednesday in memory of Covid-19 patients who have lost their lives, says Western Cape premier Alan Winde.

Winde said on Saturday he had written to President Cyril Ramaphosa suggesting the idea for national key points. “Once approved, each province could encourage municipalities to follow suit,” he said.

“This is a simple way to express our solidarity. For those who lose loved ones during this time, the ability to bid a proper farewell is limited.

“We would also like to encourage a further expression of support for our health service professionals working on the front line.”

Winde said he would also ask the government to allow an afternoon exercise session in addition to the 6am-9am session introduced on Friday under the level four lockdown.

Popular exercise spots have been inundated with people, causing congestion, and Winde said this had been exacerbated by the Western Cape's later sunrise.

By 1pm on Saturday, the Western Cape had recorded 2,783 confirmed cases of Covid-19, Winde said. This was up by nearly 10% on Friday's total, and almost 57% on last Saturday.

But Cape Town's 2,398 cases — 86% of the provincial total — were 87% higher than a week earlier. In three Cape Town health subdistricts, the number of infections more than doubled in the last week. They are:

• Tygerberg, 443 cases, up 173%. This area includes Goodwood, Bellville, Elsies River and Delft;
• Klipfontein, 240 cases, up 164%. This area includes Athlone, Manenberg, Gugulethu, Crossroads and Nyanga; and
• Khayelitsha, 332 cases, up 127%. This area now has the city's highest per capita infection rate, of about 83 per 100,000 people.

Winde said four more deaths had brought the provincial total to 52, which is almost 45% of the national total of 116.

The Western Cape had conducted nearly 40,000 tests, including 15,660 in the past week, "as we continue to ramp up our testing efforts to actively seek out cases and isolate or quarantine their contacts”.

Winde said the province's high infection numbers were due to “a much more rigorous approach toward actively locating cases, tracking and tracing contacts and conducting targeted screening and testing in identified clusters”.

He added: “Epidemiological evidence tells us where the cluster transmissions are taking place, and this is where we relentlessly train our focus with both screening and testing.

“This active case finding approach strategy means the Western Cape has a higher success rate in locating and fighting the ‘bushfires’”.

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