“When we were going to the second wave, we had taken a decision that we must ramp down.”
Makhura said the loss of a thousand beds at Charlotte Maxeke Hospital in Johannesburg because of a fire in April had been unexpected.
“We lost 1,000 beds from Charlotte — we didn’t plan to lose 1,000 beds. That is a real setback.”
But he appeared to remain confident. “At the first point of the first wave and the second wave, there are beds we have added now that were not ready that time.”
The field hospital was initially secured in April 2020 as a 500-bed isolation and quarantine site to accommodate those who could not self-isolate or quarantine at home. It was later expanded to include 1,000 beds for “priority 3 patients” informed by projected infection peak numbers anticipated for August 2020, based on modelling at the time.
TimesLIVE