Executive Mayor Ramaila calls for specific monitoring on interprovincial travel

GROBLERSDAL – The Sekhukhune District COVID-19 Command Council (DCC) has noted with grave concern that the infection rate in the district was rising at a rapid speed.

This was revealed during the DCC virtual meeting which was conducted on Tuesday, 14 July 2020 in which reports on the fight against the Coronavirus pandemic were received and interrogated.

The meeting also noted the tightened lockdown regulations in line with alert level 3 phase. According to the DCC an example of the rapid rise in COVID-19 infections is the closure of Sekhukhune District Municipality (SDM) offices in Groblersdal at Bareki Mall due to a rising number of positive cases.

The DCC said coupled with that, was the growing number of health workers who were testing positive for COVID-19.

The DCC informed that on Tuesday 14 July 2020, a total of more than 40 health workers had tested positive while SDM had 11 confirmed cases.

Executive Mayor Stanley Ramaila, DCC chairperson, requested law enforcement officials to specifically look at interprovincial travelers as they certainly contributed towards the spread of the virus.

Ramaila in addition, requested that the district’s environmental health practitioners and disaster management teams from local municipalities take charge of COVID-19 death related burials.

The Executive Mayor said that was after they observed that they were found wanting in that regard. “Overall, as the DCC, we are impressed with the spending by municipalities on COVID-19. In particular, our interventions as a district municipality on water provisioning. And that coupled with all efforts by the Provincial Command Council, we are humbled,” said Ramaila.

The DCC was further briefed on the importance of intensifying efforts to combat Coronavirus and part of the critical status quo with the district was it was still under severe danger of rising infections.