Staff Reporter
Acting Free State Health MEC Thembeni Nxangisa has blamed the recent spike in COVID-19 cases in the province on people growing tired of the acute respiratory disease, resulting in most of them failing to follow the set health protocols to curb its spread.
Nxangisa told a media briefing on Friday that the Free State is now listed as one of the provinces in the country with an increasing daily rate of infections and warned the situation could worsen if people don’t adhere to social distancing, sanitising and the wearing of masks, among others.
Over the past few days, the province has been averaging 350 new cases daily.
“We are listed among the three main provinces with an increasing daily rate of infections, not because we are reckless, but because COVID-19 has simply deepened our vulnerabilities,” said Nxangisa.
“We did extremely well at the beginning to contain the spread through our dedicated tracking and tracing.
“However, the uncontrollable movement of people and unprotected interactions coupled by the complexity of the virus have clearly overwhelmed our capacity to curb its spread over time.”
The MEC said the Free State has more cases per day and, if unattended, may lead to an earlier than expected resurgence or what is popularly referred to as the second wave.
It has been widely observed that since October 1, South Africa has seen a slow but steady increase in the overall number of cases nationally.
When aggregated, the Free State is one of the leading provinces responsible for this increase.
“These increases are attributed to a number of factors such as apparent fatigue, denial, laxity and lack of embracing the values of personal responsibility to protect myself and others,” said Nxangisa.
“It is our collective patriotic duty to adhere to health advice geared towards curbing the spread of the virus.”
COVID-19 technical expert Dr Sammy Mokoena said people aged between 15-24 years are among some of the most affected even though they have a good recovery rate compared to the elderly.
He said those aged 15-19 years, who are mostly in school, are also affected.
“With the re-opening of clubs and other places of entertainment, we have seen an increase in infections for those aged around 25,” said Mokoena.
On why Lejweputswa district – which includes the gold mining region in the Free State – had a high case fatality rate compared to other parts of the province, he said this could be attributed to a period when the area experienced a spike in cases during the hard lockdown.
The area has recorded a case fatality rate of 3.4 percent, the highest in the province.
“Most of the cases are concentrated around Matjhabeng which is a densely populated area . . . and the effect of the mines,” said Mokoena.
“The impact was exacerbated by that the mining area is within the same community where there are teachers using the same transport, shopping in the same mall and that increased the number of cases.
“And because of the sudden rise in the number of cases, that overwhelmed the health system.
“But it was also exacerbated by late presentations . . . A lot of patients presented very late with severe conditions and ultimately they died on arrival at hospital or just after being admitted.”
