Western Cape authorities braced for 'when - not if' coronavirus strikes

© Provided by Independent Media Health MEC Nomafrench Mbombo Picture Henk Kruger/African News Agency (ANA)

On Monday the provincial health department held a media briefing on its readiness for the virus and said that following dry and wet runs, all systems were ready for the impact.

Health MEC Nomafrench Mbombo said it was a normal response for people to be anxious.

“We want to share actual factual information. It’s a worldwide virus that affects everyone we have different partners helping to deal with this. We urge the public to trust our preparedness and readiness and not to share fake and misleading information,” Mbombo said.

Head of department Dr Beth Engelbrecht said there was a lot of fake news doing the rounds and the department needed to show people where they could get proper information and reiterated that there are no cases of the virus in South Africa.

“Things change so fast and I got the update before I came. There were 89 000 confirmed cases globally and 95% of them are in China and there is a 3% mortality figure.

“Since yesterday the WHO did relative risk mortality and it went from a high to a very high risk.

“But it makes no difference to us,” Engelbrecht said.

She said part of the strategy was learning from previous disease outbreaks and their network with private hospitals, embassies and airlines to support each other.

“We meet weekly with all private hospital and laboratory groups and link up to collectively prepare for the virus and respond.

“We build on previous learnings and how to respond from those. We have conducted both dry runs and wet runs to test our systems.”

Engelbrecht added that the National Institute of Communicable disease was aware of all the cases they had tested.

“We dealt with Sars, h1n1 and diphtheria outbreaks and the system is fit. The coronavirus is a whole family of viruses.

“There are others around like TB and basic hygiene of hand-washing is iimportant. We need to invest to do those things right. Often people use social media for fake news, but let’s rather send constructive information out.”

Head of Disaster Medicine and Special Events Dr Wayne Smith said they were working on a patient-centric approach in order not to scare travellers coming home.

“Setting communication channels is important. There is a stigma attached to things and we need to get out of that space. 

"What is helping is the whole community getting involved and that way if you can curb fake information it can make a big difference and patient-centric approach,” Smith said.

He added that the system is not new and has been tested in the past and they had confidence in it.

“The same piece of fake news is sent out and that’s why we need to work hard to remove the stigma and make sure we can respond as a collective.”

The department has a dedicated website, www.westerncape.gov.za/coronavirus, where factual updates and information about the virus can be found.

Cape Times