Question NW1348 to the Minister of Health
31 July 2020 - NW1348
Ismail, Ms H to ask the Minister of Health
What total number of healthcare workers have been lost to the (a) public and (b) private health sectors due to the Covid-19 pandemic in each province?
Reply:
We had requested provinces to provide us with a full breakdown of Health Care Workers who had acquired the Coronavirus. In addition the Hospital Association of South Africa (HASA) provided us with data from the private sector. We now share the data collated and verified as at 4 August 2020.
The total number of 27,360 health care workers were reported. Of those, 6,027 (22%) were from the private sector and 21,333 (78%) were from the public sector. The overall infection rate amongst health care workers as compared to the total number of cases identified nationally is 5% which is well below the global average of 10%.
A total of 1,644 (6%) of these health care workers were doctors, 14,143 (52%) were nurses, 28 (less than 1%) were Port Health workers and 11,545 (42%) were from other categories of health workers.
Sadly, 240 of our health care workers have succumbed to COVID-19, 37 from the private sector and 203 from the public sector. We salute these fallen soldiers and pay tribute to them for their commitment to serving the people of South Africa right until the very end. We extend our condolences to all the family, friends and col-leagues of these valuable members of society.
The mortality rate amongst health care workers is 0,9%.
The number of health care workers reported to have recovered as at 4 August 2020 is 16,005, which translates to a 58% recovery rate amongst health care workers.
The Provincial Breakdown is as reflected in the following table.
Table 1
|
Province |
Doctors |
Nurses |
Other categories combined |
Mortality |
Recoveries |
|
Eastern Cape |
182 |
2,748 |
2,234 |
85 |
3,225 |
|
Free State |
86 |
369 |
1,350 |
21 |
784 |
|
Gauteng |
483 |
4,983 |
2,702 |
43 |
4,509 |
|
KwaZulu Natal |
319 |
2,257 |
1,244 |
30 |
1,376 |
|
Limpopo |
47 |
302 |
248 |
0 |
464 |
|
Mpumalanga |
64 |
392 |
309 |
3 |
329 |
|
Northern Cape |
17 |
84 |
132 |
4 |
73 |
|
North West |
109 |
654 |
1,178 |
16 |
867 |
|
Western Cape |
337 |
2,354 |
2,176 |
38 |
4,378 |
|
TOTAL |
1,644 |
14,143 |
11,573 |
240 |
16,005 |
In addition, we have been provided with a snapshot of active cases amongst health care workers as at 7 August 2020. On this day we registered 7,500 active cases of which 751 (10%) were being hospitalized, 6,557 (87%) were in self isolation and 192 (3%) were being isolated in a facility.
We wish all health care workers currently battling COVID-19 a speedy recovery and look forward to welcoming them back to the workforce when they are fully recovered.
END.