The Western Cape has begun importing oxygen from outside the province to help deal with the peak of its Covid-19 epidemic, provincial head of health Keith Cloete said on Tuesday.

In addition, military doctors and nurses are being seconded to help cope with the increase in hospital admissions, and military transport is being used to help transfer patients to facilities.

Speaking at the province's first Covid-19 media conference of 2021, Cloete said the interventions were required to help bolster health-care infrastructure, which is holding steady in the face of a second wave of Covid-19 cases — expected to peak this week.

The latest figures suggest the new caseload graph is at least starting to flatten, with the Garden Route already past its peak.

Cloete said the province has enough hospital beds to deal with admissions despite a shortage of health-care personnel, of whom about 3% are infected.

The province is using 76 tonnes of oxygen daily in the combined public and private health sectors, up from a peak of 27 tonnes during the first wave of the pandemic last year.

The public sector alone requires 48 tonnes of oxygen, Cloete said. Fortunately, the main supplier, Afrox, had put plans in place to bring in additional supply, with a total available supply of 95 tonnes.

“We now have five bulk oxygen tankers allocated to the Western Cape to help us to manage that, with regular daily deliveries from the Eastern Cape,” Cloete said.

The additional military health-care personnel will be deployed to areas most in need, notably Paarl and Worcester. Cloete said the military would also be helping the province’s law enforcement teams: “Our teams are working out the details with them,” he said.

Hospitals in the Overberg district are under the most resource and new patient pressure.

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