A total of 7 360 healthcare workers have contracted COVID-19 since the outbreak in KwaZulu-Natal.<\/p>\n
While over 70% of health professionals have recovered, 68 have succumbed to the respiratory disease.<\/p>\n
\u201cMay their souls rest in peace and their families be comforted,\u201d KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sihle Zikalala said on Sunday.<\/p>\n
According to Zikalala, the number of cases reported in the province has declined drastically.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe must emphasise that we are still vigilant and on full alert. While regulations are being relaxed, we are fully cognisant that the virus has not relaxed. It is still deadly and vicious.\u201d<\/p>\n
The province has 117 743 cases (7 034 of which are still active) and 2 531 deaths.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is, however, encouraging that 108 004 or 92% have recovered,\u201d Zikalala said.<\/p>\n
According to the Premier, over the past two weeks, the province has registered 3 209 new infections and 268 deaths.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt some point, we were registering between 3 500 and 3 900 new infections in one day.\u201d<\/p>\n
The median age for deaths is 51 years, while over half of the deceased were females.<\/p>\n
As of 19 September, the province had 640 patients admitted in both private and public hospitals.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf those admitted, 115 patients (18%) required intensive care services,\u201d he said, adding that private hospitals had more patients in ICU.<\/p>\n
Among those who required intensive care, 23 were on ventilators, while 68 were admitted in high care units in both private and public facilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wish to remind our fellow compatriots that alert level 1 is still part of the lockdown,\u201d said Zikalala.<\/p>\n
The province will continue to enforce regulations and the new curfew, which is between midnight and 4am.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose selling alcohol must do so in line with the regulations. We are noting the new tricks that some are using to sell during prohibited hours and days on Saturdays and Sundays.<\/p>\n
\u201cLaw enforcement agencies are watching you,\u201d Zikalala warned.<\/p>\n
He called on citizens not to be complacent but continue to observe preventative measures such as wearing masks, social distancing, washing and sanatising hands.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe possible second wave of COVID-19 is not just empty talk, but constitutes a real threat,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Zikalala cited countries like India, the US, Spain, Vietnam, New Zealand, Brazil and South Korea where they are experiencing a new wave of infections.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of those countries have been forced to reintroduce hard lockdowns, which caused even more devastation to their economies that they were trying very hard to rebuild.<\/p>\n
“We can ill-afford for something like that to happen here in our country. Therefore, when we say stopping COVID-19 is in our hands, we really need to internalise and normalise that.\u201d \u2013 SAnews.gov.za<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A total of 7 360 healthcare workers have contracted COVID-19 since the outbreak in KwaZulu-Natal. While over 70% of health professionals have recovered, 68 have succumbed to the respiratory disease. \u201cMay their souls rest in peace and their families be comforted,\u201d KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sihle Zikalala said on Sunday. According to Zikalala, the number of cases […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[38678],"class_list":{"0":"post-166216","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-sanews","8":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166216\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}