OPINION | We must each play our role as state scrambles for beds

When SA still had zero confirmed cases of Covid-19, only a few hospitals were identified as quarantine facilities as the country braced itself for the inevitable — a move that highlighted how the government might have underestimated how quickly the virus spreads.

In the Eastern Cape, only the 400-bed Livingstone Hospital in Port Elizabeth was identified as a quarantine facility while the Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital in Mthatha and Frere Hospital in East London were given holding facility status.

This was in late January. And now, the government is pumping millions into building new wards and renovating old ones to use as isolation and quarantine facilities.

The Nelson Mandela Bay and Buffalo City Metro stadiums are being turned into quarantine facilities while Volkswagen SA has invested more than R100m into turning its unused Korsten plant into a field hospital.

Once completed, the VWSA field hospital will be a 4,000-bed facility and thousands more beds will become available at different hospitals. High acuity patients who require oxygen will be hospitalised at the VW field hospital.

B&Bs and guest lodges have also been turned into quarantine facilities as the number of confirmed cases keeps rising.  

President Cyril Ramaphosa, health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize and other medical experts also believe the worst is yet to come, and have warned South Africans to brace themselves for a surge in infections in the months to come. 

With 11,350 confirmed cases and 206 deaths in SA by Wednesday — 1,504 of these cases and 24 of the deaths in the Eastern Cape — the country is starting to see a rapid increase.

As the country ramps up its screening and testing processes, thousands more will likely test positive. Some may unfortunately die.

If Mkhize's announcement on Monday while visiting Cecilia Makiwane Hospital in Mdantsane — that even asymptomatic people will be admitted to isolation and quarantine facilities — is anything to go by, then thousands of beds will be needed.

This will place more strain on an already fragile health system and put nurses and doctors under more pressure.

We have seen how in some developed countries more advanced health systems have been strained by  mass hospitalisation of people as a result of the coronavirus. We can only hope it won't get to that point in SA.

Until a vaccine is found, everyone will have to play their part and work towards flattening the curve.

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