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Stuff from Johannesburg

Latest Gauteng Covid-19 figures make no sense

Dear Johannesburg

According to the latest figures released by the National Health Department there are now 1384 active COVID-19 cases in Gauteng, but according to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) there are 1781 COVID-19 patients in Gauteng hospitals.

This is clearly not possible and the real figures need to be clarified urgently.

The Gauteng Health Department last reported on 4 November that there were 229 490 confirmed COVID-19 cases with 209 243 recoveries, 1730 patients in hospital and 4845 deaths. This works out to 15 402 active cases at that date.

How could active cases have gone done so dramatically while hospital cases have apparently increased slightly?

The NICD figures are taken from 128 health facilities in Gauteng, and record 349 COVID-19 cases in Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital alone.

Anecdotally I have not heard such high figures from hospitals, but the estimated total number of active cases seems far too low as well.

It is vitally important that we have accurate figures so that we can track this epidemic and intervene rapidly at hotspots.

Regards

Jack Bloom MPL
DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Health

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Museum Africa: The Memory of the Market

Long before it was a sanctuary for artifacts, this building was the Johannesburg Municipal Fruit and Vegetable Market, completed in 1913. At the time, it was an architectural marvel of the industrial age, featuring a massive, vaulted roof supported by reinforced concrete and steel—a design intended to keep the produce cool in the biting Highveld sun. The site was chosen for its proximity to the railway lines, allowing fresh goods from across Southern Africa to be funneled directly into the heart of the city. For decades, it was a place of frantic, multi-racial commerce where the air was thick with the smell of citrus and the shouts of auctioneers. In 1994—the same year South Africa held its first democratic elections—the market was transformed into Museum Africa, symbolically turning a site of physical sustenance into one of intellectual and historical nourishment.