ICU beds full at Bay public hospitals as Covid-19 cases surge

Nelson Mandela Bay’s public hospitals have run out of intensive care unit (ICU) beds as the number of Covid-19 cases continue to rise.

At the same time, Livingstone Hospital in Port Elizabeth has put on hold all elective surgeries.

The elective surgery announcement was made by acting senior management medical services Dr Abner Knock in a letter to the hospital’s clinical departments.

Eastern Cape health spokesperson Siyanda Manana confirmed on Tuesday that the metro’s ICU beds were full.

As of Monday, the province had 6,045 cases with Nelson Mandela Bay, considered a hotspot, dealing with more than 3,500 active cases.

In his letter, Knock said the metro’s health-care system was under unprecedented pressure.

“Currently, our Covid-19 wards, including ICU, are full [with 84 confirmed cases] with another 21 patients under investigation.

“We have the alternative of opening bed space in the basement, yet we require additional personnel. This would include assisting with the overall Covid efforts,” Knock said.

He said that all clinical departments at Livingstone would have to contribute staff to the Covid-19 response.

“All elective procedures and admissions [are] to cease with immediate effect.

“Decisions will be reviewed on November 30.

“Procedures are currently under way to appoint additional contract nurses,” Knock said.

Manana said elective procedures for Livingstone and Provincial hospitals had been scaled down.

He said testing rates had increased from 38 per 100,000 people in the first week of November to 43 per 100,000 this week.

“The total number of hospital admissions was 13,000, [with] 68% of them [at] public hospitals.

“As of November 9, we had 467 current admissions in public hospitals, nine of those were in  ICU and eight [in] high care.”

Manana said 64% of the hospital admissions were from the province’s two metros, Nelson Mandela Bay and Buffalo City.

He said the number of newly diagnosed cases had increased as had the number of people being admitted to hospital daily.

In the last 24 hours, 85% of the new cases were recorded in the Bay and the Sarah Baartman District Municipality.

The number of active cases increased from just over 5,000 to 6,000 overnight, and 72% of those are from the [Bay] metro

“The number of active cases increased from just over 5,000 to 6,000 overnight, and 72% of those are from the [Bay] metro,” Manana said.

An October epidemiological report which analyses the virus in the province found that the unbanning of alcohol sales, the opening of taverns, unsupervised funerals, taxis at full capacity and long queues at post offices were some of the leading suspected causes of the jump in the number of active Covid-19 cases in the province.

The daily epidemiological report for Monday also revealed that most of the people who tested positive for Covid-19 were of school-going age, between 10 and 19 years old.

Manana said the number of health-care workers who had tested positive was 8,416, with the majority being doctors and clinical associates.

In the last 24 hours, four deaths had been reported in Nelson Mandela Bay.

Premier Oscar Mabuyane’s spokesperson, Mvusiwekhaya Sicwetsha, said the metro, the Sarah Baartman District Municipality and Buffalo City were the three areas of concern for the provincial government.

While the province had more than 102,057 cases, more than 92,000 had people had recovered.

Close to 4,000 had died.

“We have more than 6,000 active cases.

“The increase in infections is a major concern for the premier and we continue to urge people to remain on high alert as the second wave is coming in strongly,” Sicwetsha said.

He urged people attending funerals and other events that could not be avoided to continue wearing masks, wash their hands and constantly sanitise both their hands and surfaces.

“A recent study shows that the number of people wearing masks is not where it should be or where we’d like it to be,” he said.

Sicwetsha said former health boss Dr Thobile Mbengashe, who is now Mabuyane’s special adviser, had been deployed to the metro to help deal with the resurgence in infections here as well as in the Sarah Baartman district.

Mbengashe’s role is to support the joint operations centres in both areas to put into practice a strategy to mitigate infections.

“It’s not to say that we’re not looking at other parts of the province.

“Heading towards the festive season,  we will ramp up our public education, awareness and enforcement of regulations,” he said.

Sicwetsha said the investments made in the upgrading of health infrastructure during the lockdown period had prepared hospitals for the second wave.

Meanwhile, a frustrated mother of two from KwaDwesi told how she waited a combined 10 hours over two days in efforts to get tested at Ampath’s mobile clinic in Newton Park.

Both she and her husband needed to be tested, she said.

The woman said her husband had started feeling feverish last week and had taken a turn for the worse over the weekend.

“On Monday, we took him to the doctor and he recommended that my husband get tested.

“We went to Ampath and were directed to the queue.

“We were given the number 273 and waited for five hours in the hope that we’d be assisted.

“Eventually, someone said there would be no more testing being done for the day and we were told to return the next day.

“Today [Tuesday], we thought that seeing we’d been given numbers and filled in the forms we’d be able to move up the line, but we were told to queue again.

There are no toilets, no water and there is no social distancing between yourself and the person you want tested

“There are no toilets, no water and there is no social distancing between yourself and the person you want tested.

“When I raised this with the person who identified himself as the manager, I was told to take my husband to the hospital if he was sick.

“This is not the way to treat paying customers because Ampath should have at least come up with some kind of system from their previous experience,” the woman said.

Speaking on behalf of pathology service Ampath Laboratories’ Pickering Street branch in the metro, Dr Louise Newtt said she was unable to give information on their operations but that the number of tests being done as well as the number of positive results had increased.

HeraldLIVE