North West Health MEC Madoda Sambatha has urged the province’s people to comply with COVID-19 preventative measures, as positive cases increase.

Sambatha expressed grave concern with the increasing number of COVID-19 positive cases in the province in the past two weeks, with 101 096 positive cases recorded and 82 620 recoveries.

“We are gravely concerned by the steady increase of COVID-19 cases in the province, the average cases reported since last week hovers around 1 000 at average. This is a serious cause for concern for our province given the status quo unfolding in Gauteng Province,” Sambatha said in a statement on Monday.

To date, the province has 16 001 active cases with Bojanala District accounting for 9 801 cases, followed by Dr Kenneth Kaunda District with 2981, and Ngaka Modiri Molema District with 2 350 cases.

Sambatha noted that Bojanala and Dr Kenneth Kaunda Districts remain the major concern for the province, as they continue to register more positive daily cases.

He said a special attention must be paid to the districts, as they are main economic zones of the province.

“The early signs indicates that these districts might become serious hotspots once the Delta variant starts to pound our province,” Sambatha said.

Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati has the least cases with only 614 cases.

Over 150 000 vaccines administered

The MEC said the province has to date administered 159 272 vaccines doses. He also reiterated his call to all eligible persons to continue to register on the Electronic Vaccination Data System (EVDS) for vaccination.

The process to register people who are 50 years and above for vaccination opened on 01 July 2021.

“We still plead with our communities to adhere to basic preventative measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 infections, it is up to us to stop this deadly virus therefore, our communities should take the responsibility and not wait for government to police them for compliance, it is in our hands,” Sambatha said. 

Source: South African Government News Agency