Maverick Citizen

CORONAVIRUS

Emotional healing after Covid-19 trauma — the next step for healthcare workers in the Western Cape

Emotional healing after Covid-19 trauma — the next step for healthcare workers in the Western Cape
(Illustrative image | Sources: Leila Dougan | Rawpixel)

Western Cape healthcare workers will begin the process of healing after the deaths of their colleagues, family and friends. This comes as coronavirus cases in the province start to decline.

A process of grieving and healing for healthcare workers has been launched in the Western Cape, said provincial health department head Dr Keith Cloete at a media briefing on Tuesday, 19 January. The latest statistics record that 8,367 healthcare workers in the Western Cape have been infected with Covid-19 and 102 have died. 

“We have started an intentional process of grieving and healing for all healthcare workers, after the significant emotional and mental trauma experienced,” said Cloete. At present, there are 796 active cases among healthcare workers, broken down to: 

  • 62 doctors; 
  • 345 nurses; 
  • 20 radiographers; 
  • 4 pharmacists; and
  • 365 others (security guards, admin staff, cleaners).

The number of active cases has begun to decline in the province, compared with the previous week’s reporting. This isn’t the first time Cloete has mentioned the mental wellbeing of healthcare workers.

Keith Cloete: Western Cape needs ‘to provide Covid relief for healthcare workers and their families’

Cloete said there was enough personal protective equipment for healthcare workers across the province, with more orders placed in recent weeks. He said the province was also scaling up support for mental health issues:

“What we want to do is open the space for all our healthcare workers.”

Cloete said the province had reached the peak of second wave infections, with decreases in confirmed cases, hospitalisations and deaths — but this was being monitored for any potential localised outbreaks. 

“Our healthcare workers have and continue to face significant mental and emotional strain,” said Cloete. 

Also addressing the media briefing, Premier Alan Winde said the Western Cape provincial government had written to National Health Minister Dr Zweli Mhkize about lowering restrictions for the province. 

Watch Winde’s comments here:

 

Winde said the province would ask for the ban on access to public spaces and beaches to be lifted and the curfew to be reduced to 11pm-4am to allow restaurants to have a full dinner service. Winde also will request that alcohol sales be resumed for offsite consumption from Monday to Thursday. The premier will also ask for onsite alcohol sales to resume at establishments such as restaurants and wine farms on weekends, as “such sales are critical for the survival of wine tourism in the Western Cape”. DM

Gallery

"Information pertaining to Covid-19, vaccines, how to control the spread of the virus and potential treatments is ever-changing. Under the South African Disaster Management Act Regulation 11(5)(c) it is prohibited to publish information through any medium with the intention to deceive people on government measures to address COVID-19. We are therefore disabling the comment section on this article in order to protect both the commenting member and ourselves from potential liability. Should you have additional information that you think we should know, please email [email protected]"

Please peer review 3 community comments before your comment can be posted

X

This article is free to read.

Sign up for free or sign in to continue reading.

Unlike our competitors, we don’t force you to pay to read the news but we do need your email address to make your experience better.


Nearly there! Create a password to finish signing up with us:

Please enter your password or get a sign in link if you’ve forgotten

Open Sesame! Thanks for signing up.

We would like our readers to start paying for Daily Maverick...

…but we are not going to force you to. Over 10 million users come to us each month for the news. We have not put it behind a paywall because the truth should not be a luxury.

Instead we ask our readers who can afford to contribute, even a small amount each month, to do so.

If you appreciate it and want to see us keep going then please consider contributing whatever you can.

Support Daily Maverick→
Payment options

Become a Maverick Insider

This could have been a paywall

On another site this would have been a paywall. Maverick Insider keeps our content free for all.

Become an Insider

Every seed of hope will one day sprout.

South African citizens throughout the country are standing up for our human rights. Stay informed, connected and inspired by our weekly FREE Maverick Citizen newsletter.