“We can cope with Covid-19 workload, pandemic and emerging trauma.”
There is dr. Saadiq Kariem, Chief operating officer of the Western Cape Department of Health, who supports the request of the province’s prime minister, Alan Winde, to lift the alcohol ban.
According to Winde, the province flattened the infection curve and surpassed its Covid-19 peak. However, the “pandemic,” unemployment, is developing in the province.
“We have enough beds in our formula to deal with Covid-19 and with that in the brain we also know that our hospital’s 69% formula gives us the opportunity to boost now to open up the economy,” Winde said.
Winde said the purpose as a provincial government is to save jobs.
“We who have alcohol-related damage put pressure on our hospital system. We are also convinced that we have sufficient capacity. In the past, we have already put in place systems to deal with alcohol damage and trauma.”
To date, the Western Cape has 100,213 shown from Covid-19 with 3,429 deaths.
Speaking in CapeTalk, Kariem said evidence that the province is in a position to lift the ban on Covid-19 infection figures.
According to Kariem, Western Cape hospitals, both public and private, have 1,191 covid-19 patients. Of these, 933 are generally in general and the rest are under extensive care.
“Our right now is 69%,” Kariem said. “We’re already coming out of our peak and our numbers are falling.”
Kariem said Winde was scheduled to make a presentation to the National Coronavirus Command Board (NCCC) this week and that a cabinet reaction was expected later in the week.
He said the provincial government is aware that lifting the alcohol ban in the Western Cape can cause more people to come to the province under false pretexts.
“We’ll have a special team that will lessen the damage to the alcohol. We will expand our pilot and consulting projects in successful places like Heideveld and Khayelitsha,” Kariem said.
SundayTimes reported that President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to face the country by Saturday, when the crisis state he declared in March expires.
Wine is the hardest blow
The Western Cape government has declared that maintaining the alcohol ban is the ultimate harm to the wine industry.
“SA is one of the world’s leading wine-producing countries, and this sector is basically located in our province. We are the wine capital and agricultural processing of South Africa, the sector that supports thousands of livelihoods in the price chain,” the province said.
“The Vinpro wine industry framework estimates that the initial nine-week ban on sales and a five-week ban on exports will result in the loss of 18,000 jobs and the closure of 80 wineries and 350 grape producers next year.
“Stats SA’s food and beverage knowledge for April and May shows a 94% and 87% minimisation in Stats SA’s revenue, respectively, to 2019 revenues.”
The province stated that the damage caused by the prohibition of transitoryness was felt not only in the agricultural and agricultural communities, but also in its tourism and hotel sector. The truth of this sector is that restaurants depend on the sale of alcohol to remain profitable. If authorized institutions are unable to sell alcohol on the spot, they cannot remain financially viable.
“Then we have a complex scenario to face in our province, where the continued suspension of the sale of alcohol will lead to a massacre in employment, basically in our poorest rural communities. We can’t forget it.
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