Premier repeats call for area-sensitive Covid rules

The Western Cape is entering its third wave of Covid-19 infections, premier Alan Winde says, reiterating his call for the government to let provinces apply different levels of restrictions, depending on the severity of their epidemics.

“We continue to request national [government] to look at the ability for differentiated action to be taken. We can’t put our own restrictions in place.”

The province previously pushed for a regional softening of level 3 restrictions after it passed its second peak of infections in January. It urged the government at that stage to let it resume alcohol sales, relax the curfew and reopen beaches to help boost the local economy.

It failed in that bid and now wants to see the present level 2 restrictions tightened to reduce the size of gatherings and limit travel to affected areas in a bid to slow transmission of the virus.

While the Western Cape has not yet met the criteria used by the ministerial advisory committee on Covid-19 to determine when a province is in a third wave, all the key indicators monitored by the province indicate that it is rapidly accelerating towards that threshold, the provincial head of health, Keith Cloete, said.

The ministerial advisory committee says a new wave will occur when the seven-day moving average of new cases exceeds 30% of the previous waves ’ peak incidence. By this definition, SA technically entered the third wave on Thursday, as the national sevenday moving average reached 5,959, according to a statement issued by the National Institute of Communicable Diseases.

Gauteng, Free State, the Northern Cape and the North West are in their third waves, but the Western Cape has not yet hit that point, according to analysis from the SA Covid-19 modelling consortium, which advises the government.

“We are on the way. We can see the pattern. It is just a matter of time ”before we hit the threshold, said Cloete.

The province recorded a 31% surge in new cases in the week to June 7 and is now confirming on average 430 new cases a day. Hospital admissions for patients with severe Covid-19 rose by 18% during the same period and stand at more than 1,000. The test positivity rate is 11.3%. There are 5,802 active cases of Covid19 in the province, an increase of 34% on the number recorded last week, Cloete said.

Winde announced plans to set up a mass coronavirus vaccination site at the Cape Town Convention Centre but warned it would be able to operate at full capacity only if the government secured sufficient supplies.

“At its peak, it is envisaged that this mass ‘vaccination centre of hope’ will be able to vaccinate over 4,000 people a day. This will have a major impact on the pace of our vaccination programme,” said Winde.

SA’s vaccination programme, which launched on May 17, has been severely constrained by a delay in the release of Johnson & Johnson shots, which were expected to be the backbone of the national immunisation drive.

Western Cape has the capacity to vaccinate 120,000 people a week at smaller sites that have already been activated, but expects this week to administer 70,000 doses due to limited stocks of Pfizer vaccines.

SA TECHNICALLY ENTERED THE THIRD WAVE ON THURSDAY, AS THE NATIONAL SEVEN-DAY MOVING AVERAGE REACHED 5,959