GARDEN ROUTE NEWS - With the December holidays upon us and the new Omicron variant spreading rapidly, the Western Cape Department of Health once again appeals to those who have not yet been vaccinated to take up any of the many opportunities provided within the communities. 

"Get vaccinated and be protected, especially as we are entering the fourth wave," said the department's district spokesperson, Nadia Ferreira.

The Garden Route District has seen an increase of 272 Covid-19 cases over the past seven days. 

According to Ferreira there are now 54 active cases per 100 000 of the population. One week ago, it was 14 active cases per 100 000. All sub-districts had an increase in the active cases per 100 000 population.

The breakdown of cases in the local hospitals as at 7 December are as follows: Harry Comay Hospital 10; George Hospital 2; Mossel Bay Hospital 1 and Knysna Hospital 1.

Vaccinations

Over the last few days, the Western Cape reached the 50% mark of adults in the province being vaccinated with at least one dose. Though this is only halfway, the 51,36% or 2 556 131 of adults in the province have ensured they are protected against severe illness.

Vaccination teams have administered 358 034 vaccine doses within the Garden Route District to date. 

The percentage of the Garden Route population over 18 years that has received at least one vaccine dose stands at 53% (two percent more than a week ago) and the percentage of the total Garden Route population that has received at least one vaccine dose stands at 36% (one percent more than a week ago).

Omicron and travel bans

In an opinion piece on Tuesday 7 December by April Raphiou of the Los Angeles Times, "Op-Ed: Omicron is already in the U.S. Discriminatory travel bans for Southern Africa need to end", the writer points out that while the world's scientists are scrambling to unravel the inner workings of the Omicron variant, not enough people are talking about the elephant in the room: the Southern Africa travel ban that remains in place.

"When South African scientists identified a new coronavirus variant in their country, the Biden administration's immediate response was to ban travel from eight African countries: South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini, Botswana, Namibia, Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. At that time, only two of the countries - South Africa and Botswana - had confirmed cases. And a week after South Africa's report, news broke that Europe had confirmed cases before South Africa identified the variant."

Raphiou said Biden last week announced new travel rules to help protect Americans, but there was no mention of lifting the travel ban from Southern Africa, even though the variant has now been detected in dozens of countries, including the US.

Other countries in Europe, the Middle East and Asia closed their borders to Southern African travellers. "South Africa's president, Cyril Ramaphosa, quickly rebuked global leaders for their discrimination. Instead of acknowledging the ingenuity of South African scientists who identified the new variant, the US and others chose to isolate the Southern Africa region," writes Raphiou.

Premier Alan Winde

Holiday cancellations

Since the beginning of last week, the Western Cape Government has continued to engage with the international community to remove the travel bans placed on South Africa, which have a severe impact on our provincial economy. Premier Alan Winde said they are lobbying to have the travel bans removed.

An ongoing survey of the impact of the travel ban on the tourism industry revealed massive percentages in cancellations for bookings for the period from December to February next year. The survey has also indicated an increased rate of unemployment, said Provincial Minister of Finance and Economic Opportunities, David Maynier. 

"The bans will serve to further exacerbate unemployment in our country, undermining the recovery of our tourism and hospitality industry at a time when they should be operating at their peak."

District spokesperson for the WC Department of Health Nadia Ferriera

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