The Western Cape Department of Public Works is preparing for 53,000 people needing quarantine spaces by June and July, the provincial legislature heard on Wednesday. 

The department, along with the provincial Department of Human Settlements, addressed the Western Cape legislature’s Covid-19 oversight committee on their plans of action during the pandemic and lockdown.

But quickly, questions were raised by members of the committee about the quarantine and isolation facilities available to the public. In a province with the highest number of Covid-19 confirmed cases and most deaths, this is a big worry, especially as the local transmission is increasing. 

Earlier in April, the provincial Health Department’s Head of Department (HoD), Dr Keith Cloete, warned that local transmission was going to become a big problem in the province. The peak of infections in the Western Cape is expected in August, but this could change if cases rise exponentially, warned Cloete at the time. 

When asked on Wednesday about quarantine facilities in the province, the HoD of the provincial Public Works Department, Jaqueline Gooch, said according to projections made by the department, around 53,000 people would need to be quarantined in the Western Cape between June and July. A further 11,500 people would need to be isolated until they are “healthy and hearty and able to go home”. 

Gooch warned, “when you then put the kind of work into that, it becomes a number that is not financially doable… based on our cost analysis, we’d be running to the R3-billion mark to run from a quarantine perspective.” 

Right now, however, the key is to help the provincial Health Department by providing infrastructure support, Gooch said.

When question by GOOD member of the committee Brett Herron if this number included those who are able to self-isolate and quarantine at home, Gooch confirmed the quarantine sites are “only for those people that would need to be supported from a quarantine and isolation perspective from the government; in other words, this does not include those that are able to self-quarantine or self-isolate under their own either financial terms or obviously their own homes”. 

The province in conjunction with the national Human Settlements Department will de-densify crowded informal settlements. Du Noon in Milnerton will be given 1,500 temporary relocation units, Kosovo informal settlement will receive 2,000 temporary units and Khayelitsha will receive 3,000 temporary relocation units. 

This initiative, launched by MEC Tertius Simmers and Minister Lindiwe Sisulu, is an effort to prevent the coronavirus from spreading further into vulnerable communities. DM