Health
Question by:
Hon Brett Herron
Answered by:
Hon Nomafrench Mbombo
Question Number:
1
Question Body:
With regards to the Department of Health’s response to COVID-19:
Quarantine and field-hospital sites:
- (a) Which provincial and municipal sites have been allocated or identified for quarantine or field-hospital purposes by each municipality, (b) what is the progress in repurposing these sites, (c)(i) how many additional beds are available at these sites and (ii) where are they located and (d) what is the target number of quarantine or field-hospital beds for the province;
Screening and testing:
- (a) Which provincial and municipal sites have been allocated or identified by each municipality for (i) testing, (ii) screening and (iii) triage purposes, (b)(i) how is the door-to-door screening being done and (ii) by whom, (c) how are the areas to be screened identified and (d) how many residents of the Western Cape have been tested for COVID-19 to date;Strandfontein homeless camp:
- The assessment by Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), the international humanitarian medical NGO, of Cape Town’s Strandfontein homeless camp found that the risk for the transmission of the COVID-19 virus was very high due to “gross overcrowding and because the availability of screening and healthcare services are erratic” and “the danger of doing harm is great and this should alarm anyone”. The NGO has called for the phased decommissioning of the Strandfontein homeless camp. In the light of this finding: Whether her Department agrees with this assessment; if so, what are the relevant details?
Answer Body:
- (a) Isolation and quarantine facilities are not per ward, but per geographical area and across the province.
- (b) The quarantine and isolation sites were identified based on a needs-assessment around the facilities which they already have and do not require repurposing. Sites for the Intermediate Care facilities (“field hospitals”) have been identified with the CTICC being finalised and construction has commenced with expected completion in June.
© (i) The additional number of beds at the Intermediate Care facilities will amount to 1300 beds.
(ii) Three Intermediate Care facilities will be in the Metro and one in the Rural.
(d) Through the Intermediate Care facilities were are planning for an additional 1300 beds.
- (a) The community screening & testing is conducted in alignment with confirmed index COVID-19 positive cases across the province. When the location of a confirmed COVID-19 case is identified, a mapping exercise will demarcate the area that needs to be targeted in the door to door fashion. Community Screening and testing is being expanded to other vulnerable communities at high risk of Coronavirus spreading from person to person.
(b) Our community screening and testing is done in a collaborative manner by community health workers, supported by NGOs and local health authorities.
(c) The community screening & testing is conducted in alignment with confirmed index COVID-19 positive cases.
(d) As at 7 May 2020, 53 476 people were tested.
- The site has been decommissioned.
Date:
Thursday, April 30, 2020
