Northern Cape needs more Covid-19 testing and reporting

20 April 2020

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Northern Cape calls on Health MEC, MaseManopole, to ramp up both Covid-19 testing and province-specific reporting in the Northern Cape.

This comes amidst concerns that, while the number of positive cases in the province has remained stagnant at just 16 cases since the 12th April 2020, the lull in case finding may be attributed more to a lack of testing than it is to the actual lack of the presence of Coronavirus in the province.

We appreciate a report by Health MEC Manopole last week that 130 000 people in the province had already been screened. However, screening, while very important, does not equate to actual testing.

Allegations of a reluctance by the state to test people in the province is fueling our concerns of the state’s actually readiness and capacity to do testing. In addition, there was also the cancellation of the mass screening and testing campaign in Sol Plaatje municipal area last week. Sol Plaatje municipality is the province’s most densely populated municipality, with the majority of NC residents residing here. We have furthermore received reports of a lack of test kits in other parts of the province, such as Namakwa.

While we would naturally hope that the Northern Cape’s low population and wide-open spaces are acting as a natural barrier to the spread of Coronavirus across the province, this is a dangerous conclusion to draw without adequate testing being done.

We are especially concerned that the lull in case finding in the province may give our citizens a false sense of security, whereby they abandon social distancing and other regulations aimed at curbing the spread of Coronavirus.

Given that the Northern Cape has one of the most poorly resourced and capacitated health care systems in the country, we are also concerned that it won’t take much for our already overburdened health care system to collapse, should there be a rapid spike in positive cases in the province. This is the last thing we all want and what we must guard against.

We are therefore calling on MEC Manopole to increase testing and reporting on provincial Covid-19 statistics. In order for all people to take up their roles as soldiers in the fight against this disease, it is essential that they have a better understanding of the current low Covid-19 positive cases against the actual number of tests done.

If the province does in fact have a shortage of test kits, let government be completely transparent about this. Truthful and regularly updated information, regardless of how brutal it may be, will serve as a much more effective spear and shield to fight the invisible enemy than will any obfuscation of the truth.

Issued by Andrew Louw,DA Northern Cape Provincial Leader, 20 April 2020