A multi-sectoral Ministerial Advisory Committee on Social Behavioural Change is being pulled together to encourage ‘fundamental reform at grassroots levels for the sake of saving lives’.
Cases in South Africa, as on Monday 29 June, totalled 144,264 while 1,567,084 tests had been conducted, with 38,075 new tests reported. A total of 2,456 deaths have been recorded while 68,925 people have recovered.
The opening up of areas of the economy had led to a migration inland which would see Gauteng emerge in “coming days” as the province with the highest Covid-19 numbers, said Mkhize.
People returning from and to work under Level 3 had seeded community spread, he said. Also, the congregation of people in mines, factories, taxis and busses had amplified cluster outbreaks, like in the North West mining belt.
But, as we head for the eye of the Covid-19 storm, South Africans were finding it difficult to adhere to the most crucial “non-pharmaceutical” interventions – washing hands, wearing masks, social distancing, quarantine and isolation.
“We see poor or no social distancing in communities. Masks are being abandoned or not worn properly and there is laxity setting in around frequent hand-washing. This will directly influence the rise in numbers in the next two weeks,” Mkhize warned.More from MSN:
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The government was so concerned that a multi-sectoral Ministerial Advisory Committee on Social Behavioural Change is being pulled together to encourage “fundamental reform at grassroots levels for the sake of saving lives”.
The need for wider public education and engagement is critical at this point.
In the Western Cape, which featured as the epicentre of the Covid-19 pandemic, residents are pushing back against isolating in the province’s quarantine facilities.
Mkhize noted that “community members remain reluctant to subject themselves to quarantine and isolation, despite government having secured these sites in various parts of the province”.
The idea of being isolated from one’s family in a quarantine site is a terrifying one, to say nothing of the fear and anxiety a positive diagnosis brings with it.
To be separated from those you love in your moment of need, to be placed in the hands and at the mercy of strangers is a big ask and the reluctance to take up quarantine speaks perhaps to the lack of trust in the public health system.
On 19 June, Western Cape Premier Alan Winde said 2,568 people had accessed quarantine sites, with just over 600 in various facilities across the province.
While there were “provisions for authorities to enforce law”, South Africans themselves had to “partner with government in its efforts,” urged the Mkhize.
“We remain committed to work together with civil society in an empowerment exercise that enables each individual to make the right decisions – decisions that allow people to protect themselves, protect the elderly, protect those with comorbidities and protect the poor and vulnerable,” he said.
A lesson to be learned from Western Cape’s original response to Covid-19 was that a “hospicentric focus” on case management on its own proved inadequate. The province’s intensive contact tracing, quarantine and isolation programmes had also been “suboptimal”, said the minister.
While the province was “working hard to address these gaps”, getting buy-in from residents with regard to quarantine remained an urgent challenge.
In spite of this, the Western Cape, Mkhize noted, “had not reached the surge as expected by modellers” but remained a key hotspot. The hospitalisation rate continued to increase in the Western Cape, which still had the highest number of admissions.
