In quotes | David Makhura on Covid-19 in Gauteng — ‘July will be more difficult than June’

Gauteng premier David Makhura has warned residents to remain vigilant and comply with Covid-19 safety measures as the province’s infection rate continues to surge. He was giving an update to members of the province’s command council.

Here are seven quotes from his address:

The Covid-19 storm

“June has been a very difficult month. We are now at the beginning of July; we’d like to say July will be even more difficult than June. We want our people to understand how the work being done by scientists helps us focus on the areas that matter most.”

High daily transmissions

“Gauteng now has the largest number of active cases as a result of the daily infection rate, and we have a dramatic drop with regards to the recoveries, because they always come after 14 days. The more daily cases we have, the less recovery rate we would have.”

Hospitalisation

“The hospitalisation rate has dramatically increased but also the mortality rate has increased. We have more people on ventilators than just a month ago when we had only four people on ventilators. The storm is here and we have to weather the storm together. The health system and workers are under pressure.”

Be careful in marches

“There have been a lot of marches organised, some for good causes, especially the ones around GBV, but we want to caution the people of our province. It is in those places where people are going to contract Covid-19. Even in funerals, people must still be compliant.”

Covid-19 in schools

“There are 589 schools that have been affected by Covid-19. The number of learners is 184 and the number of educators is 428. We have closed down 71 schools, but as you know, the school is not closed forever; it is closed down when there is a case.”

Alcohol regulation

“We are looking at what we can do in addition to what national decisions are. We regulate the hours of sale of alcohol as a provincial government. We can make certain decisions about this but they must be based on proper modelling on what the impact would be, what the load would be on our trauma units and so on.”

Reopening the economy

“As a province we think that we shouldn’t move at a pace that may overwhelm the system, and that is what risk adjusted means. It is about assessing the risk and making sure that it is something that we can handle. If it reaches a point where we can’t handle it, it is something that will create difficulties for us.”