Zikalala updates Ramaphosa on KZN's COVID-19 response
Premier Sihle Zikalala has told the president that areas including Umlazi, Chatsworth, Verulam and Westville are hotspots in which has been identified the coronavirus epicentre in KZN.
He has been reporting back to President Cyril Ramaphosa who's in Durban to discuss the province's readiness and progress in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Zikalala has also given an update on the work of the contact tracing teams in the the province, "So far they have managed to deal with and monitor contacts that are about 3 131 and contacts that are not yet traced, there are about two."
The status of those monitored and having completed 14 days is 1 817 and those that are in progress are 1 314. Samples collected from contacts is 2 505 and samples not collected is 626.
Zikalala has told the president that there are enough beds in the province that have been allocated for the coronavirus pandemic.
There are 2 141 beds that are ready for isolation and 3 479 beds ready for quarantining. For high care, they have 16 and 143 for ICU.
KZN currently has 1106 cases of respiratory disease with 35 deaths.
The provincial government has also received over 95 000 applications for food relief amid the pandemic.
Zikalala says the government is still processing thousands of applications for food relief, "The pending which is being processed is 57 459 but the table there then presents applications per district and the progress so far."
"The province also has headed and following the direction that in providing this mitigation we must strictly respect the dignity of the people we are serving. Most cases we deliver at home or even if it is groups, it will be a group of people in the nearest area where they will just collect and go home," he added.
