Western cape
Message telling people to stay away from hospitals is fake - WC Health Dept
The department said the voice note falsely alleged you would be taken to a COVID-19 ward for a ''death injection'' and would die a few days later.
When police confiscate weapons, they're first stored before being shipped to Gauteng to be crushed and melted down.
Police used water cannon to enforce social distancing by elderly and disabled grant recipients outside Sassa’s Bellville offices in the Western Cape on Friday while one person died while queueing in Durban.
Premier Alan Winde and health officials have this week told the provincial legislature that additional vaccines would be procured for the Western Cape.
The provincial Health Department said more beds have been freed up hospitals.
The Western Cape and Eastern Cape have some of the country's highest COVID-19 infections rates and fatalities.
As of Monday night, the province has over 48,000 active cases and more than 3,300 people are in hospital across the public and private sector.
Head of health Dr Keith Cloete said combined oxygen utilisation for both public and private hospitals was 76 tons a day.
There are now 1,019 health workers infected with the virus, higher than last week's figures, and because many are in isolation, this means they are out of the health system and not able to work.
The department said they had always worked on the assumption that the peak was around 7 January.
In the Western Cape, provincial health authorities are bracing for the second wave peak, with more than 44,000 active cases in the province.
Head of Health Dr Keith Cloete said officials had always worked towards 7 January, on Thursday, for the province's peak.
Just last week in Ocean View, a man was killed and another wounded while vehicles were torched, and a home was damaged in running battles for turf.
Health facilities are under immense pressure facing staff shortages and the department is on a recruitment drive to secure the services of more nurses.
The peak is still two to three weeks away but already hospitals are overloaded, running at over 100% capacity on average.
Health MEC Nomafrench Mbombo said hospital staff had been working flat out under very stressful circumstances since March.
Western Cape health head Dr Keith Cloete said it was a nightmare for medical staff reliving another uptick in COVID-19 cases where no one was safe.
Government has introduced restrictions in beaches in both provinces in an effort to claw back their epidemics.
On Tuesday morning, two paramedics were on a call in Mitchells Plain when they came under attack.