The scenes in the converted community hall are a reminder of how
badly South Africa has been hit by its third and most debilitating
COVID-19 wave yet, as the infectious Delta variant surges through a
mostly unvaccinated population.
"The Delta variant has caused enormous strain on the resources ...
Every hospital is getting strained, every healthcare worker is
getting strained," said Fatimah Lambat, the doctor in charge of the
ward set up by Gift of the Givers, a Muslim charity, to ease
overloaded public hospitals.
"It's very draining ... patients are still phoning me from the
community for help. And when we're full here, we still need to help
them," she said. "We don't want them to be lost."
With South Africa recording an average of about 20,000 cases a day
and nursing active cases, cumulatively, of more than 10 times that,
Africa's most economically advanced nation has also been its worst
hit by the virus, with 64,000 deaths.
A vaccination campaign has been slow, with just 4.2 million doses
administered to a population of 60 million. Officials aim to reach a
vaccination rate of 300,000 a day by the end of August.
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Doctors say they have never had to deal with so
many COVID-19 infections all at once. Hospitals
in the largest city Johannesburg, where the
latest wave started, are full.
For 79-year-old Catherine Naidoo, the most
terrifying thing about falling gravely ill was
knowing that so many had died.
"You don't know what lies ahead. You look at the
news and see how people are passing away," the
recovered COVID-19 patient said, lying on her
back and adjusting her mask. "It was the most
frightening experience."
Behind another curtain, medics covered head to
toe in protective gear adjusted the drip of a
sleeping patient, while in another, a medic was
getting a patient to do some exercises before
getting her to blow into a tube to test her
lungs.
President Cyril Ramaphosa extended COVID-19
restrictions on Sunday for another 14 days,
including a ban on gatherings, a curfew from 9
p.m. to 4 a.m. and a nationwide ban on the sale
of alcohol.
(Writing by Tim Cocks; Editing by Janet
Lawrence)
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