Cape Town - Trauma cases pose more of a risk to the health system than Covid-19, with the province amplifying calls for the Covid-19 restrictions to be lifted in their entirety.
Premier Alan Winde, Health MEC Nomafrench Mbombo, and Department of Health and Wellness Head Dr Keith Cloete held a digital press conference to discuss the issues on Tuesday.
Winde opened the digicon by calling for an end to all Covid-19 restrictions and to allow all congregations, convention centres, stadiums and other economic hubs to operate at full capacity.
Despite previous attempts, Winde again called for an urgent President’s Co-ordinating Council (PCC), with the most recent letter sent on Monday. Winde said all Covid-19 indicators were on the decline.
“We need to make sure that restrictions are ended because we need to now focus on the economy,” Winde said.
Nearly 5.5 million Covid-19 vaccinations have been administered, with close to 3 million people vaccinated against the virus.
Those over the age of 50, now qualify for a second Covid-19 booster.
Mbombo said youth unemployment and the resulting mental health issues were rocketing.
The province is reporting 458 new Covid-19 cases and 45 hospital admissions daily. On average, three Covid-19 related deaths are reported daily.
Dr Cloete said: “There’s now a continued decline and plateau in cases in all nine provinces, confirming the peak of the current resurgence has passed.”
“The province met the technical wave definition on May 11, with cases remaining at this level for two weeks and did not increase beyond 1 200 new cases a day. As such, the National Department of Health did not declare the recent resurgence a wave.
“We can see about 80 000 trauma patients in the first five months of the year, so at this point in time, trauma actually poses more of an occupancy risk currently than Covid-19.”
In the past weekend, facilities saw an increase in trauma patients.
Interpersonal violence accounts for half of the injuries, specifically in young adults between the ages of 20 and 40, with spikes on weekends and month-ends.
Trauma cases are more significant and sustained on the health-care platforms than Covid-19, Dr Cloete said.