Durban - PREMIER Sihle Zikalala has lamented the fact that KwaZulu-Natal has now surpassed the Western Cape with a higher number of Covid-19 cases.
He called on the public to continue fighting the pandemic.
KZN has 100 494 cases, while the Western Cape has 100 316. Gauteng has the most with 194 093 cases.
“This week, our province surpassed the 100 000 mark in terms of Covid-19 cases, and has registered more than 1500 deaths. As of today, KwaZulu-Natal has had 100 494 Covid-19 cases, with 42 213 of those still active. Sadly, we have lost 1 523 people to this epidemic, while 56 758 have recovered.
“What is even more worrying is that our province has been reporting the highest rate of new infections in the country since the beginning of August, despite all our efforts to flatten the curve against the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic,” he said.
Zikalala said KZN was on the verge of becoming the epicentre of the pandemic and more people would get infected if behaviour did not change.
Keeping with his previous public message, Zikalala urged people to make use of government facilities to get treated rather than staying at home.
“Government has worked hard to create thousands of beds for quarantine and isolation. There is still a lot of space available. We want to make an earnest appeal to all the people of this province to assist us in this fight against the pandemic by adhering to all protocols and regulations, as this is the only way that we can defeat this enemy,” Zikalala said.
Opposition parties had a dim view of the way the provincial government is responding to the matter.
The IFP’s Blessed Gwala said that at the beginning of the response to the virus it seemed everybody was on board and it was going to be a joint effort. “This is no longer the case as opposition parties have been sidelined. They (ANC) are running this thing as if it is their own property.”
He said this should not be the case as the coronavirus affected everyone.
DA leader Zwakele Mncwango said it was difficult to say how effective the response by the provincial government had been because they had not received enough information. He said that from what he had seen, people feared going to government hospitals and preferred using alternative remedies.
“At the end of the day, I don’t believe we are doing well.”
Daily News