Cape Town - Healthcare workers have been advised to continue to look out for, investigate and test for Covid-19, cholera and measles.
Provincial Health Department spokesperson Mark van der Heever said in the Western Cape, 12 laboratory-confirmed measles cases have been reported since the start of the outbreak, with all the cases in the Cape Town metro.
“However, most of these have since recovered. Overall, the incidence of measles appears to be decreasing across the country,” Van der Heever said.
As of April 3, the province had 23 suspected measles cases, 17 in the Cape metro, two in the Cape Winelands, two on the Garden Route, and two on the West Coast.
The Western Cape has not yet detected any confirmed cases of cholera. In terms of Covid-19, there were 467 active cases of the virus as at April 7. Of these, 34 people were hospitalised as a result.
“The situation is still the same as before, although there are still infections occurring, it is relatively low,” Van der Heever said.
Another department spokesperson, Byron La Hoe, said: “The breakdown is as follows: 168 in the Cape Metro district, 49 in Cape Winelands, 20 in the Garden Route, eight in Overberg, and 15 on the West Coast. This represents a comparable 29% decrease of cases in relation to the previous week.”
Cases not represented in the breakdown are potentially scattered or with case locations currently unknown.
Measles surveillance has intensified and blood samples are routinely collected from cases that fall under a rash, fever or one of the C’s (cough, coryza, and conjunctivitis), he said.
National Health Department spokesperson Foster Mohale said there were 11 positive cases of cholera.