EXPLAINED: Western Cape's three-pronged-approach to curb its Covid-19 resurgence

Cape Town – The Western Cape government announced on Thursday it had adopted a three-pronged approach to contain the Covid-19 resurgence in the province.

Premier Alan Winde made the announcement during his weekly digicon. This comes after his Presidential Coordinating Council (PCC) meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Winde used Wednesday's PCC meeting to argue against a lockdown being imposed on the province, and in favour of targeted, local interventions based on scientific evidence.

Winde said the next 30 days were going to be critical for the Western Cape and the containment of the province’s resurgence, andthey would rely more on law enforcement to enforce the existing level 1 lockdown restrictions.

“Given the rapid growth of cases being experienced in the Western Cape, doing nothing and just letting the virus spread at its current pace is not an option.

“We have to intervene in innovative ways that slows the spread, protects those at highest risk and ensures that our health system has the capacity to provide care to everyone who needs it,” Winde said.

He explained the three-pronged approach to contain the Covid-19 resurgence as:

1. A continuation of the province’s health response to ensure that every person gets care when they need it.
2. Behavioural change to prevent new infections, by working with individuals, communities and businesses to adopt protective measures.
3. Increased enforcement of existing level 1 regulations that will ensure the compliance needed by all stakeholders to contain the virus.

“Together these three pillars are the best way to roll back the resurgence, while keeping our economy as open as possible. This is how we intend to save both lives and livelihoods,” he said.

The Western Cape’s health response will include:

• Increased surveillance of Covid-19 outbreaks, through testing of cases in hot spot areas, contact-tracing, daily huddles to understand reasons for spread, and expert analysis of data and trends.
• The scaling up of health platform’s capacity to manage the increased burden on provincial hospitals, with key trigger points for the addition of new intermediate, acute and critical-care capacity, so that enough beds are always available.
• Ensuring a core level of essential services in the health system, and starting preparations for a careful, planned reduction in comprehensive health services in hot spots to ensure adequate capacity for a potential surge of cases.
• Obtaining sufficient personal protective equipment to protect all front line staff and ensuring the mental well-being of health-care workers.
• Using technology to track Covid-19 infections in high-risk individuals, such as those with diabetics, to reduce the number of deaths.

The Western Cape government’s behaviour change response includes:

• The launch of a festive season Covid-19 safety campaign using a variety of media channels to encourage adherence to the 3Cs and golden rules.
• The distribution of community level trends of Covid-19 infections to encourage personal responsibility in different geographic areas.
• The formulation of detailed guidelines on gatherings that can assist residents in making safer choices over the next month.

The Western Cape’s all-of-government enforcement response includes:

• Co-ordination of enforcement activities through the Joint Operations Centre, and the creation of a joint operations grid.
• The launch of a single complaints line for all Covid-19 related complaints, with a direct link to the JOC.
• A continuation of the province’s hot spot strategy, with reports from hot spot leads to cabinet weekly.
• Requesting additional policing resources from SAPS to assist with compliance.
• The organisation of regular engagements with business, labour, faith-based organisations and civil society to ensure Covid-19 compliance and strong co-operation during the festive season.

The premier, in line with this three-pronged approach, listed how provincial government departments would work together to prevent new infections of Covid-19.

“Over the next month, we need every person in the province to dig deep and to give one big push, by returning to the behavioural changes that we have all learnt this year.

“If over the next 30 days we can get this right, we can keep our economy open, and ensure that there are enough hospital beds for each person who needs one, when they need one, regardless of their illness,” Winde said

Cape Argus