Staff Reporter
Free State health authorities are worried about the sharp rise in COVID-19 cases in the gold-rich Lejweleputswa district which has recorded at least 100 new cases per day since the beginning of July.
The district, which is home to several mining companies, had about 200 confirmed cases of COVID-19 on July 1, but six days later, the number had jumped to 617.
On July 9, there were 902 cases.
Lejeleputswa has a population of about 630 000 people and includes the towns of Welkom, Virginia, Allanridge, Bothaville and Brandfort, among others.
Provincial health department spokesperson Mondli Mvambi said the situation is compounded by the fact that the district is a concentration of job seekers from across the country.
“That is a migrant-infested district,” he said in a written response to questions from The Free Stater.
Mvambi attributed the sharp rise to people failing to adhere to COVID-19 lockdown regulations, particularly social distancing and their general behaviour at gatherings like funerals.
“The schools and the mines are responsible for the increase in numbers,” he added.
“The Free State in general and Lejweleputswa in particular is impacted upon by movement trends of people from the Eastern Cape, North West, Gauteng, Lesotho . . .”
Mvambi said the central location of the province makes it accessible to many people, including those in transition.
In light of the disturbing trend, he said the Lejweleputswa District Command Council held two strategic sessions on Thursday and Friday to find ways of addressing the issue.
Mvambi said the district manager for health has since been tasked to prepare statistics indicating the extent of the disease per ward so that local councillors can work closely with their communities.
“The district is required to intensify its case investigation programme by improving turnaround time to at least 72 hours,” he said.
“At the moment performance is at 39 percent in this regard. Whilst there’s noticeable good performance of 93 percent on . . . contact tracing and monitoring, there’s is still room for improvement.”
The provincial health spokesperson said the District COVID-19 Team – supported by the Provincial COVID-19 Team and the Provincial Command Council – is working on a new plan to intensify public awareness, education and adherence.
The Lejweleputswa municipal manager is also expected to develop a checklist on monitoring compliance which will be used by ward councillors in order to alert law-enforcement agencies for intervention.
Mvambi said the district has been urged to improve its overall response strategy by building capacity at different levels such as human resources in order to improve efficiency on the recording and monitoring of cases, accountability for infections, isolations, quarantine and deaths.
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