The KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) provincial government has contracted 15 000 health workers, in various fields, to help boost the province’s capacity to fight the spread of the Covid-19 Delta variant that is dominating the pandemic.

Premier Sihle Zikalala briefed the media on the province’s state of readiness for the third wave of the pandemic, in Durban, on Wednesday.

The Delta variant has been detected in six districts in KZN: Harry Gwala, eThekwini, Zululand, King Cetshwayo, Ugu and Ilembe.

KZN currently has 352 401 reported cases of Covid-19 with an average of 753 cases recorded each day.

Zikalala also announced a further boost in the province’s fight against the pandemic with the installation of a Web-based Oxygen Cylinder Management and Ordering System.

“This enables us to ensure that oxygen is ordered timeously, and to avoid the shortages, which can be a matter of life and death. The upgrading of oxygen regulators has been completed at some of our regional hospitals, such as Edendale, RK Khan, Madadeni and Prince Mshiyeni Memorial Hospital,” he said.

The provincial government is also in regular and direct contact with contracted oxygen supplier Afrox, to ensure that any threats to the supply of oxygen are identified and resolved early.

“We are confident that the oxygen capacity, oxygen management systems, as well as the contingency measures that we have put in place to avoid shortages, will see us through these tough times,” Zikalala said.

The province has 2 494 isolation beds and 1 411 quarantine beds dedicated to Covid-19 patients.

The KZN Department of Health has established bed monitoring bureaus in all districts to monitor bed utilisation and bed availability. To ensure accuracy of the statistics, all information is collated and updated daily.

More beds will be repurposed if needed.

Zikalala said despite the province’s capacity to implement an effective response to the pandemic, it will be threatened if citizens disregard Covid-19 prevention protocols.

“We ask of everyone not to ignore the safety protocols. Even when it comes to the illicit trade of alcohol from the so called “Mr take it or leave it”, we ask of you to think twice, as through your actions, you can cost lives by overburdening the healthcare system,” he urged.