Almost 27,000 people have been screened for Covid-19 in Gauteng since 31 March 2020 as the government has trained thousands of community healthcare workers to visit areas with high levels of exposure and vulnerability to the virus, Premier David Makhura announced on Thursday.

Gauteng continues to have the most number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in South Africa. According to figures released by Health Minister Zweli Mkhize on 8 April 2020, there were 782 confirmed cases in Gauteng, which is 42% of the country’s total of 1,845.

There have been three Covid-19-related deaths in the province, all males, aged 49, 52 and 79. Two patients are in intensive care units (ICU) in the public sector and five are in ICU in the private sector.

Makhura said of the 26,841 people screened for the virus since 31 March 2020, 440 displayed symptoms and were referred for testing.

Makhura said 8,005 of the province’s 9,000 community healthcare workers had already been trained to conduct screening since President Cyril Ramaphosa had announced the rollout of a mass screening and testing campaign.

Makhura said 607 healthcare professionals in Gauteng had also been trained to conduct contact tracing, screening and testing.

Gauteng’s mass screening campaign started in Stjwetla in Alexandra where it was feared the virus might spread rapidly. Almost 1,700 people were screened in Alexandra and 201 were tested. Only one person tested positive and was moved into quarantine.

“We remain the epicentre and we must do more even in terms of screening. Those numbers are still too small,” said the premier.

Health MEC Dr Bandile Masuku said the screening programme is prioritising areas with the highest numbers of cases where people are at greater risk of being exposed and are vulnerable, such as in high-density areas. Contact tracing continues and 90% of contacts of people who have tested positive in Gauteng have been traced.

“We cannot even fathom us getting to a point where we do mass screening when the known contacts have not even been contacted,” said Masuku.

For the first time, the Gauteng government provided the daily breakdown of infections per district on 9 April.

“If Gauteng is the epicentre of Covid-19 in the republic, Johannesburg is the epicentre of Covid-19 in Gauteng with 440 cases,” said Makhura.

Ekurhuleni follows with 111 cases, Tshwane with 90, West Rand with 12, and Sedibeng with six. An additional 123 cases are unallocated as some doctors have failed to correctly record patients’ contact details.

“We shouldn’t think that we are over it yet. We should prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Everything we are doing, we don’t want complacency. We don’t want to start celebrating; we must continue to work,” said Makhura.

There has been widespread speculation that the lockdown will be extended beyond 16 April 2020. Makhura said the national government would decide whether to extend the lockdown, but he warned that reopening OR Tambo International Airport and allowing people to travel into Gauteng could further spread the virus.

“All I can say to you is it would be a profound mistake to think that these numbers where we are now represents where we might be,” he said.

“We should really, really prepare for the situation that might go way above where we are now and we have to be ready for that.”

Provincial governments have been scrambling to procure personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare workers and Makhura said the government will prioritise supplying frontline staff.

“As we speak now, we have adequate supply of personal protective clothing for healthcare workers,” he said.

The province is also making additional hospital beds available to treat Covid-19 patients. Tshwane District Hospital has been “successfully decanted”, said Masuku, to provide 240 beds. Isolation and ICU beds have been made available for patients at Chris Hani Baragwanath, Charlotte Maxeke and Kalafong hospitals.

The premier thanked businesses, NGOs and faith-based organisations for supporting efforts to assist families who are food insecure during the lockdown. He said the province’s food insecurity programme had reached 15,000 households, but it would need to increase its capacity to reach more.

That figure does not include the homeless, many of whom have moved to temporary shelters across the province.

Criminals and arsonists have targeted Gauteng schools during the lockdown and two suspects were arrested in Soshanguve on 8 April 2020 after four schools were burnt down.

Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi said: “Those two people that have been arrested, we really believe that they will sing.”

Makhura said he was “perturbed” by the attacks on schools. He suggested that some of the attacks were linked to business forums wanting to disrupt school projects. DM