Medical officials attend to Covid-19 patients at the Nasrec quarantine and isolation site. Picture: GALLO IMAGES/DINO LLOYDwhich was created to help support SA’s health and welfare response to the Covid-19 crisis, has earmarked R1.9bn for the country’s health interventions as the number of infections surge.Nomkhita Nqweni has said the fund is moving to the second phase of its intervention, which is largely focused on health work and the health response.
After an initially slow start, SA’s Covid-19 crisis has accelerated sharply in the past few weeks. The number of confirmed cases in the country has exceeded the 320,000 mark, worse than the UK, Spain and Iran. The Solidarity Fund’s head of healthcare Jonathan Broomberg said that while the Western Cape seems to have peaked, many provinces, especially Gauteng and the Eastern Cape, are heading into [a peak}, and so the fund needs to focus on the health response.
The department of trade, industry and competition said on Friday that the CSIR has started production on an order of 10,000 ventilators that will be delivered over the next two months.