Ventilators
Made in SA: Non-invasive ventilators a huge boon for COVID health workers
Last month, Garden Route officials requested support from the SANDF because the virus cut a swathe through law enforcement officials in the area.
These will come in handy as the country prepares for the second COVID-19 wave over the next few months.
This is the update Parliament's trade, industry and competition committee has received from the department this week.
"The items were received by the minister of health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, from the US ambassador to Nigeria, Ms. Mary Leonard, in Abuja yesterday," a senior official in the minister's office told AFP.
Almost 1,500 COVID-19 patients are currently being treated in hospital and 273 of them are in ICU or high care.
The Health Minister visited the Dr George Mukhari Hospital in Pretoria with Gauteng Health MEC Bandile Masuku to assess its state of readiness to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.
In collaboration with local partners, CSIR engineers developed these devices as part of government's national ventilator project.
Dr Jaco Laubscher (a physician specialising in vascular biology) shares findings that may revolutionise how we treat Covid-19.
The ventilators will be installed at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto, which is one the designated facility's for managing COVID-19 cases in the country.
The ventilator project is one government's interventions aimed at meeting the health system's needs and opening up new economic opportunities.
In the Western Cape, around 850 ICU beds in the private and public sector will be available for COVID-19 patients, but Premier Alan Winde has repeatedly said there won't be enough ICU beds at the peak.
For a population of around 59 million, the country has limited intensive care unit beds and ventilators. And supplies of personal protective equipment for health workers are sub-optimal
There’s a desperate need for more of these medical devices globally as a result of COVID-19 patients with respiratory difficulty requiring critical care in hospital.
Denel has responded to a call from the Department of Public Enterprises to drive the ventilator project, in preparation for a possible surge in the number of hospitalised patients requiring this specialised piece of equipment.
Of the more than 4,000 cases have been reported in sub-Saharan Africa and 125 people have died.