Cape Town - The Department of Public Works and Infrastructure has earmarked 3 098 state-owned and 6 473 private facilities as potential Covid-19 quarantine sites.
The department had been briefing Parliament’s portfolio committee on public works and infrastructure.
According to the department, there are as many as 4 427 Covid-19 patients already in some of these facilities.
Director-general Morris Mabinja said: “Quarantine sites were made available and were assessed in compliance with the regulations. These figures are changing, we have received information about facilities being occupied constantly.”
As many as 14 hotels across the country have been identified for quarantining, Mabinja said, in accordance with rates and terms agreed to by the National Treasury and the Department of Tourism.
“National Treasury and the Department of Tourism negotiated these rates. We have contracted 14 hotels and we have spent R28 million to use the facilities for the intended period,” he said.
Two of the department's facilities in Tshwane have also been refurbished to - combined - accommodate more than 100 beds for acute-care patients.
“There are two facilities that the department will be subjecting to refurbishment and we have indicated we need this to be done to accommodate people as a matter of urgency. The cost estimated will be R5 million,” Mabinja said.
The provincial public works department has facilities which it will avail as quarantine centres, he added.
The Western Cape government recently agreed to the use of the Cape Town International Convention Centre as a temporary hospital, to care for 800 people at the peak of the pandemic.
@MarvinCharles17