Staff Reporter
The Free State health department says it will not scale down its fight against COVID-19 despite a marked drop in new confirmed cases of the acute respiratory disease in recent few weeks.
Provincial health spokesperson Mondli Mvambi said this when he confirmed to The Free Stater that the COVID-19 field hospital being set up at the Bloemfontein Showgrounds will be ready by mid-September.
“Work at the field hospital is about 98 percent complete,” Mvambi said in a telephone interview.
“There is no expert on COVID-19 in the world today and no one knows what’s going to happen tomorrow,” he added.
“COVID-19 is no longer just a respiratory disease. It is much more than that.”
Mvambi said there has been a steady increase in sudden deaths amongst people who didn’t seem ill yet they were carrying the coronavirus.
He said some knew they were positive, but because they were asymptomatic, they procrastinated in seeking medical help, much to the detriment of their health.
“Some of them are knowing that they have the disease and suddenly they develop minor ailments which they take for granted because they think they can be mildly sick and keep going,” he explained.
“And suddenly, some of them suffer from heart attacks . . . some as a result of pulmonary embolism leading to blood clots in the lungs.
“Some people suddenly experience numbness in their feet and within a short space of time, they can’t walk anymore and feel their feet.
“You also have people suffering acute extreme headaches.”
Mvambi said the health department has decided to watch the situation closely because, in some cases, one’s positive status is only known when their body is swabbed after they have already died.
“We need to be ready at all times as a health system. Just one COVID-19 death is one too many,” he said.
“The health system is like the army. You don’t dismantle your army because you are experiencing relative peace.
“You beef up your army all the time so that in times of war, you are able to respond to any attack whether at short notice or not.”
The provincial health department has opened two COVID-19 wards in recent weeks at Universitas Academic Hospital and Pelonomi Tertiary Hospital with 163 and 79 beds respectively.
Mvambi said even though there is a drop in COVID-19 figures, the setting up of the temporary facilities cannot be viewed as wasteful because the equipment used there can be used to improve other healthcare centres.
He said the location of the province also demands the need for more healthcare facilities ready to accommodate patients.
“We can’t just stop now because we are seeing some decline in infections,” Mvambi said.
“The situation of the Free State is also quite unique. We are surrounded by about six other provinces as well as the Kingdom of Lesotho.
“Our borders are porous and people move freely across the borders.
“No matter how much you try to control, there is always movement of goods, people and livestock.
“As a result, the disease is also moving across the borders uncontrolled, hence we need good health facilities.”
Meanwhile, Health MEC Montseng Tsiu is expected to receive personal protective equipment valued R1 154 867.80 from Eskom at a ceremony scheduled to take place at Fezi Ngubentombi Hospital in Sasolburg on Tuesday.