Health Minister Joe Phaahla says 66 healthcare facilities have been affected by the recent flooding in KwaZulu-Natal.
The Minister provided an update on Government’s interventions to assist flood-affected residents.
He says assistance is also being provided to residents and healthcare facilities in the Eastern Cape.
Phaahla says the priority now is to ensure that those with injuries, and those patients who are on chronic medications, get urgent medical attention.
Authorities are hard at work finalizing all post-mortem examinations, on the more than 430 people who died in the KwaZulu-Natal floods.
He says more than 60 school-going children died in the floods.
The Minister says it is important to determine exactly how these people died so that their family members can find closure.
The confirmed death toll stands at 435, with 55 people that are still missing.
Watch the minister’s full briefing here.
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- Real time audits of disaster funds.
- More than 4,800 police officers deployed to flood-stricken KwaZulu-Natal.
- Solidarity Fund to disperse funds to flood-affected residents of KwaZulu-Natal.
[Photos] #Floods | Earlier today, the Social Cluster Ministers led by the Minister of Dr Joe Phaahla provided an update on National State of Disaster pic.twitter.com/XxCPab7hvj
— South African Government (@GovernmentZA) April 28, 2022
The WHO’s Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus says there should be a global shift to see healthcare and healthcare facilities as an investment instead of as a cost.
He says proper investment in healthcare systems would lead to a more focused and resilient response to fight future disease outbreaks.
Ghebreyesus says the focus should be placed on using healthcare systems to promote health and well-being, instead of only treating diseases.
Watch Ghebreyesus’ full address here.
Related articles:
- WHO warns that the gradual destruction of the natural environment would lead to an increase in communicable diseases.
- WHO not seeing a lot of cases of people getting reinfected with the new mutation of the Omicron variant of Covid-19.
- WHO to continue working to boost the availability of vaccines.
LIVE: @DrTedros' Guest Lecture @Cambridge_Uni on Global Pandemic Response, Public Health and Sustainability, as part of Vice-Chancellor Lectures on Globalization, Sustainability, and the Power of Ideas https://t.co/L8vuLLv65Y
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) March 1, 2022
