President Cyril Ramaphosa wears a mask ahead of his address to the nation on June 17 2020. Picture: GCIS/JAIRUS MMUTLEFor 100 days we have been living in the shadow of one of the greatest threats to global health in over 100 years.
The Department of Health and the Ministerial Advisory Committee has recommended that dexamethasone can be considered for use on patients on ventilators and on oxygen supply. We took a decision early in the development of the disease in SA to restrictinternational travel and gatherings with the declaration of a National state of Disaster andsubsequently imposed a nationwide lockdown to slow the transmission of the virus.
During level 5 of the lockdown, this doubling time increased to 15 days, which meant that ittook much longer for the virus to spread. The doubling time has been at around 12 days during levels 4 and 3. Over the last few weeks, the number of infections has been rising rapidly. Nearly a third of all confirmed cases have been recorded in the last week alone and morethan half of all confirmed cases have been recorded over the last two weeks.
For many of us, what was once a distant disease is now coming much closer. More and more of us now know someone who is infected, whether at work or school or inour church, mosque, temple or synagogue. It may be one of our friends or a member of our family. Yet, even though the risk of infection is greater, it is by no means inevitable. Through our behaviour as individuals we can reduce the likelihood that we will get infectedor infect others.
The wearing of masks, however, is no substitute for regular washing of hands with soap andwater or sanitiser and maintaining a distance of at least 1.5m from other people. These are still the best ways of containing the spread of the virus. Our medical experts have advised that interventions such as setting up fumigation tunnels and body spraying should not be used as they have no proven benefit and may be harmful.
The power to defeat coronavirus is in our hands. Our response is now also more focused, on hotspot areas with the greatest rate of infectionand sending multidisciplinary health teams to contain outbreaks and ensure those with the infection get the necessary care.
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