Kaya 959 Reporter
The new COVID 19 Omicron variant has raised alarms as many hospitals in the province are grappling with whether they’ll be able to accommodate patients.
Gauteng, which currently accounts for 80% of all positive Covid-19 cases, is recording a rise in hospital admissions due to the pandemic.
Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital health workers in Soweto are bracing themselves for another spike in hospital patients as infections rise in Gauteng.
Professor Bruce Mellado of the School of Physics at the University of the Witwatersrand recently joined Nzinga Qunta to unpack what was happening in the province, and how the new variant was spreading.
“The most important finding we have right now about the new variant and how it is behaving is that the virus spreads very quickly and the numbers are growing very fast.” he said.
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Though the hospital in Soweto has seen a Covid-19 bed occupancy of 15% between November 18 and 24, the Gauteng province has confirmed it has seeing a dramatic surge in hospital admission with 1,035 Covid-19 patients admitted in both public and private facilities.
Professor Salim Abdul Karim, clinical infectious diseases epidemiologist has said that he expected 10,000 daily cases from the end of the week.
He said that the high transmissibility of the Omicron variant would result in more cases being reported rapidly and that would cause pressure on hospitals.
In a media briefing CEO of the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital Dr Nkele Lesia said there is likely going to be immense challenges at the hospital. “We used to also utilise the surgical beds, especially during the first wave.When alcohol was banned we had capacity in the surgical wards but now that capacity is limited because we are also dealing with patients who could have gone to Charlotte but are coming to us,”
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Dr Lesia said. He also said that they were already in a position to “scale up services should the need arise using available resources” at the country’s biggest health facility.
