Thread by @miamalan

[Thread] 1. The devastating, snowball effect of unrest and looting on #COVID19SA

On Monday, @healthza reported 146, 577 vaccinations for the day — on Thursday, before protests started, we did 191, 833.

Which province had the biggest drop in vaccinations and why?

2. The province with the biggest drop in vaccinations is the one with the most widespread unrest: KZN. Several vaccination sites had to shut down.

On Fri, KZN did 40, 741 vaccinations, on Monday it did 3, 956 (less than a 1/10 of Fri).

3. How does this impact on our 3rd #COVID 19 wave? COVID hospitalisations are increasing. Jabs dramatically reduce someone’s chances of being hospitalised. We’re currently vaccinating people of 50+ — they’re most likely to fall ill. On Mon we had 36, 776 fewer of them vaccinated.

4. Why did this happen? Unrest prevents #HealthWorkers from getting to vaccination sites and when they do manage to get to work, sites, such as those at Clicks in KZN, get looted, so they close down. Patients also don’t feel safe to travel to sites. bit.ly/3hyVWWz

5. @healthza’s goal is to do 250 000 vaccinations/day by the end of the week. Will that happen now? Ironically this is happening at a time when SA has the most vaccine stock it’s had since the start of #VaccineRollOutSA. But violence means we can’t use it at the speed we need to.

6. In Gauteng, hospital beds are mostly already filled to capacity with #COVID patients. But now there are more patients: those who got injured during looting and there are fewer doctors to treat everyone, because doctors can’t get to work. bit.ly/3k9V38B

7. Oxygen can mean the difference between life + death for #COVID19 patients. But oxygen companies are now too scared to do deliveries without police escorts, which has drastically slowed down deliveries meaning hospitals are running short of oxygen. bit.ly/3i8HoMg

8. Another thing that could be the difference between life and death for #COVID19 patients is whether they get to hospital in time for treatment. But during unrest ambulances can’t get to hospitals because they get attacked.

https://twitter.com/miamalan/status/1414543892842680320

9. Comorbidities like diabetes, HIV/hypertension make people more likely to fall ill with #COVID19, especially if untreated. These conditions are treated with medication which you need to take daily. But many pharmacies, where patients collect such treatment from, are now closed.

10. Not only are the pharmacies closed, many have been looted. So the chronic medication that #COVID patients need to make them less likely to end up in hospital, have been stolen or rendered unusable.

11. From TV visuals it’s clear that many protesters/looters don’t wear masks + no one practises social distancing. It makes them more likely to contract #SARSCoV2, the virus that causes #COVID19. Those events run the risk of becoming superspreader events.

12. We now have the army and police deployed to help stop the violence. Many people are getting arrested. But they’re taken to holding cells which are already stretched to capacity — another chance for superspreader events.

13. We haven’t vaccinated enough of our 60+ population. @MRCza now has a project with mobile vans to vaccinate elderly people when they queue at social grant pay points. But cash-in-transit services have stopped cash deliveries because of the violence.
bit.ly/3kfptGu

14. One doctor’s summary of events in Jhb: “I could hear the stun grenades all evening from my flat in Killarney (close to the Hillbrow clinic where they work). It is so heartbreaking. Our country really needs a break.”