Cape Town Convention Centre hospital closes as infection rates plummet

In what is considered a positive milestone in the Western Cape’s fight against COVID-19, a Cape Town field hospital is set to close its doors after the last remaining patients were discharged.

The Hospital of Hope at the Cape Town International Convention Centre admitted a total of 1 502 patients between 8 June and 14 August 2020.

Sadly, 81 of the patients lost their battle with the disease, which means 1 421 others managed to make recoveries.

The facility, which boasts 864 beds is credited with playing a critical role in the province’s battle to counter the spread of the respiratory disease.

As of Friday, 21 August 2020, the Western Cape has detected 103 616 cases of COVID-19, since the coronavirus was first picked up in the country in March.

Equipment to be sent to other facilities

The provincial government said the facility would be decommissioned as the Western Cape sees a decline in the number of infections, deaths and people requiring admissions in the metro.

It further said work was underway to transport equipment to health facilities where they could be used to treat other patients.

The Head of Health in the province, Dr Keith Cloete said the latest figures indicated that cases were stabilising.

“The health platform response, by and large, has coped with the cases requiring admission during this initial surge. Significant capacity has been added in terms of infrastructure and equipment for high-flow nasal oxygen, and oxygen consumption has been managed”, Cloete said during a media briefing.

Cloete added that the province was in a position to contract the private health sector if necessary and that the introduction of comprehensive health services had been scaled up.

Winde: ‘Support local businesses’

“It is essential to ensure a strong focus on containment for the next 12-24 months. We will conduct a formal review and reflection process to develop a coherent plan for the next one or two years, based on our collective learnings”, he further said.

While Premier Alan Winde has welcomed the reopening of the economy, he has expressed concern over the effects of the five month-long lockdown and has urged residents to support local business, which have undoubtedly been shaken by the global pandemic.

Winde said he conducted a walkabout where he spoke to some businesspeople, some who could no longer afford to hire staff or even continue running.

“That was really disturbing for me. I know that up until now we’ve been saying stay at home as much as possible. I’m now asking you to continue with wearing your mask, to continue cleaning your hands and use hand sanitisers, to continue to be absolutely aware of social distancing, but to go out of your homes and support a local business”, he said.

Western Cape records increase in COVID-19 discharge rate

Wendy Philander, the Democratic Alliance’ (DA) Western Cape Spokesperson on Health, added that the latest update provided by the COVID-19 Ad-Hoc Committee showed that the number of patients discharged outweighed the number of patients admitted. Philander noted that this development eased the pressure off of the province’s healthcare services, saying:

“Although we cannot completely re-direct attention to non-Covid-19 care, I welcome this development as it will greatly assist in recalibration efforts and relieve the pressure on frontline staff at our facilities. Since the previous report, the number of new recorded cases also declined from 3 621 to 3 247.

We celebrate every victory as the decrease in numbers not only reduces pressure but allows the province to direct our attention to the second pandemic of unemployment, poverty, and hunger.

We, however, have to remain vigilant in our fight against the virus and practice social distancing as far as possible. The use of masks and good personal hygiene remains imperative for our health.”