Imtiaz Sooliman – COVID19 in SA Gift of the Givers gears up

From drilling boreholes at hospitals to hiring nurses. Our

local heroes at the gift of the givers Foundation are once again

coming to the rescue. The aid organization says it's already

preparing interventions for South Africa's impending, if not already

arrived, fourth covid 19 wave, and this follows the identification of

the new Omicron variant by South African scientists for more on

their plans to help alleviate the pressure on the health system.

We're now joined by gift of the givers, founder and our local hero

again, we said, Dr Imtiaz Suleiman, thank you so much for

joining us, Doctor, the fourth wave, we believe, is already in

gauteng, how bad are things looking there? And do you expect

the fourth wave to be as severe as the first and the second. Doctor,

good morning, Anika. Look, yes, I don't expect, well, I'm not a

scientist. You know, everybody doesn't know it's true early yet,

24th November was the first time they identified the Spain. But it

probably was running around before that, before we identified it. I

measure the critical situation in the country by the calls that I

get. How prepared this has started on 15 March, 2020

from the time you know disaster, national disaster was announced by

the President on the 15th of March, 2020 on that Sunday. And of

course, the first lockdown came on 27th march from that period. We

haven't stopped our intervention, our preparedness, our assisting in

various areas in the health aspect water and food goes lockdown is

also considered as promised, the knockout effect of covid itself.

But the way I judge the situation is when the calls come in, and

strangely enough, for the first time, but the numbers rising so

rapidly, we haven't received any calls. Not one call, not a single

hospital, not a single team member. Nobody calling, nobody

saying, even the public. Nobody's calling. Nobody's saying we need

oxygen. We need oxygen concentrators. We need machines.

We need beds, please. You know we're in trouble. We need help. We

need assistance. Not a single call to that effect has come. So it's

telling you certain things, one that, up till now, the strain

seems to be fairly benign. In terms of the damage it is causing

damage in inverted commas, in terms of the infection that is not

causing severe infection. In the severe infection being, you know,

embolic phenomena and requirement for oxygen, where people die

because of oxygen deficit, doesn't seem to be doing that, but it

didn't seem to stay much faster than the other variants, and that

tells us the problems. It was with the public that we are doing

something that's wrong, that we may be having too many gatherings,

there's too much of close contact, and more importantly, I think a

lot of people are not taking the precautions they're supposed to

take because they think vaccination is a protection

against infection. It is not. I've met so many healthcare workers,

and I travel a lot to the country, to hospitals and events in many

places, and everyone tells me, now we find we vaccinated. You're not

fine if you're vaccinated, because you can still get infection and

you can and maybe infection may be mild in you, but you can cause

spit to other people are not vaccinated, or even if they're

vaccinated. So the first message that we cannot abandon the rules,

you know, the general non pharmaceutical rules. You have to

have the mask. We have to have the distance. You can't have big

events. You have to, you know, have the ventilation, because this

virus is spreading very fast. And though we very happy right now.

And I'm saying happy because our ICOs are not full, our hospitals

are not full. There's no demand for oxygen. But we don't know the

strain yet. Whatever it does something unusual in the next four

or five days and suddenly starts infecting people in a massive way,

and starts causing the damage inside the body after for another

four or five days. We don't know. So precaution is the best

safeguard, Doctor. Interesting that anecdotally, well, you aren't

getting those calls for ventilators and for oxygen.

Certain provinces are shutting down vaccination sites because

people just are not coming for their vaccines, and they're

sitting there just waiting to be used. Do you think we need to push

our vaccination drive again, very I think it's what, 34% of the

population is vaccinated.

The messaging, you know, as just that the person mentioned earlier

in the brief, the messaging should be done by scientists. You know,

they because it causes a lot of confusion. And to be honest, also,

a lot of people are not, I'm thinking, are saying from the

beginning, this is the feedback that we've had from the beginning,

because the covid itself is affected by other issues, or it

affects other cases in the country, other circumstances.

People have been telling us since last year. They say, you're

telling us to take precautions about covid, but we're hungry, we

don't have water. We have other diseases. We have cancer, we have

TB, we have HIV, AIDS. There hasn't been a broad spectrum

approach against all those conditions, and they're saying,

You know what? We are dying in any case, what is being done for all

those conditions? There's a there's a big messaging about the

human rights issue in terms.

Of cancer treatment, you know, tbk is gone, out of control. HIV

complications are coming back. So to have a balanced approach and to

encourage the public and you know, and to show that even ended, we

need to address all the circumstances and situations at

the same time and say, Look, we take an interest all the medical

conditions. And yes, you know, vaccination is important for you.

It's helped to prevent severe illness. And you have the reports

that so many hospitals saying there's so many ICUs and no

patients that were vaccinated. So that kind of messaging has to go

through, but people have to have an understanding that you know

what, it is important, and they take it care of every other

circumstance.

Alright? Thank you so much. That was CEO and founder of gift of the

givers, Dr imtina. Imtiaz Suleiman, thank you so much for

your time.