WESTERN CAPE NEWS - In a media statement earlier today, Western Cape premier, Alan Winde said that the number of healthcare workers infected with Covid-19 dropped to its lowest level since the start of the pandemic.

According to the statement:

I was also very pleased to reveal in this week’s digital press conference that the number of healthcare workers infected with Covid-19 in the Western Cape continues to drop sharply.

In December 2020, during the height of the second wave, over 1971 healthcare workers were infected with the virus. This dropped to its lowest level since the pandemic started in March last year, with just 38 infections last month.

One week into the month of April, and there have been just 2 infections amongst healthcare workers so far, bringing the current number of active cases among healthcare workers to just 16.

Over the last year, our healthcare workers have risked their lives to help save the lives of our family members and friends. It warms my heart that we have seen such a drastic improvement.

Our Department of Health not only attributes this success to the low number of infections overall in the province, but also to the fact that thousands of healthcare workers have been vaccinated in the Western Cape so far.

Vaccines work – they are safe, and they are effective, and we now urgently need to get more people, especially those at high risk of severe Covid-19 infection, vaccinated as soon as possible. This is a top priority for the Western Cape Government which is working around the clock to ensure that we have a successful, world-class vaccination programme.

“Western Cape data still showing a decline in Covid-19 hospitalisations and deaths”
The Western Cape Government continues to take a data-led and evidence-driven approach to understanding and responding to the Covid-19 pandemic.

During today’s digital press conference, we set out what our data is currently showing us:

• There are 756 Covid-19 patients in our acute hospitals (459 in public hospitals & 297 in private hospitals).
• Covid-19 hospitalisations have continued to decline; the non Covid-19 service however remains busy particularly in the metro [combination of trauma and medical cases].
• Hospitals in the Metro hospitals have an average occupancy rate of 87%; George drainage area hospitals at 58%; Paarl drainage area hospitals at 74% and Worcester drainage area hospitals at 71%.
• Occupancies in Covid-19 beds show Metro hospitals at 10%; George drainage area hospitals at 12%; Paarl drainage area hospitals at 20%; and Worcester drainage area hospitals at 17%.
• Covid-19 & PUI cases currently make up only 5% of all available acute general hospital capacity in both Metro and Rural Regional Hospital drainage areas.
• Covid-19 intermediate care at the Brackengate Hospital of Hope currently has 10 patients, Freesia and Ward 99 has 0 patients, Mitchell Plain Hospital of Hope has 0 patients and Sonstraal Hospital currently has 0 patients.

Overall, we are seeing a plateauing of infections in the Western Cape, with the reproductive number of infections dropping below 1 again. This means that cases have stabilised at this low rate.

The Western Cape Government is continuing to respond to any new clusters of infections that emerge through our surveillance systems. To date, we have had success in containing cluster outbreaks.

We however continue to urge our residents to do everything possible to stay safe and not get infected with or spread Covid-19. We especially urge our younger residents, who in some areas continue to drive infections – to help us stop the spread of Covid-19.

If we all play our part, we can keep the curve flat and continue to save both lives and livelihoods in the Western Cape.

Update on the coronavirus and vaccines
As of 13:00 on 8 April, the Western Cape has 2195 active Covid-19 infections with a total of 281 024 confirmed Covid-19 cases and 267 363 recoveries. A total of 52 202 out of the 53 820 vaccines received to date as part of the Sisonke trial, had been administered by 17:00 on 7 April.

Please note that we are experiencing a technical issue relating to the cumulative death total. The correct figures will be included in tomorrow’s update.

Additional data is available on the Western Cape Covid-19 data dashboard which also features active cases per sub-district, active cases per 100 000 and 7-day moving averages. Access the data dashboard here.

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