Today the DA will send to the Presidency a Covid19 Action Plan that will ensure better healthcare treatment for all South Africans, as well as a far stronger prevention campaign to minimise the imminent strain on our healthcare system.This plan is critical if we are to mount an effective defence against the pandemic, because government\u2019s alternative \u2013 indefinite lockdown \u2013 cannot be an option.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our plan takes into account the many challenges unique to South Africa, the biggest of which is undoubtedly the incapability of a state hollowed out by cadre deployment and corruption \u2013 all under the guise of \u201cempowerment\u201d \u2013 to make critical decisions within a short timeframe and then implement these decisions efficiently across equally incapable provincial and local governments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Drawing from the experiences of the Western Cape over the past three months, this plan focuses on the following ten areas for success:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1\ufe0f\u20e3 Efficient decision-making structures<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2\ufe0f\u20e3 A coordinated testing programme<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3\ufe0f\u20e3 Contact tracing<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4\ufe0f\u20e3 Quarantine and Isolation facilities<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5\ufe0f\u20e3 Communications campaign<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6\ufe0f\u20e3 Evidence-based protocols and regulations for non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
7\ufe0f\u20e3 Field hospitals<\/p>\n\n\n\n
8\ufe0f\u20e3 Oxygen<\/p>\n\n\n\n
9\ufe0f\u20e3 Staffing<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1\ufe0f\u20e30\ufe0f\u20e3 Reprioritised funding<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The state alone does not have the capacity to oversee or implement a Covid strategy. The decision-making process in a crisis needs to be swift and responsive, and it needs to draw on the expertise and the capacity of a wide range of players outside of government and the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Government will have to explain to South Africans why it places their lives so low on its list of priorities. Government will also have to explain what it was doing for more than three months while our country was in lockdown, as millions of people lost all they had. Because it certainly wasn\u2019t building up our healthcare capacity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But more urgently, government needs to show citizens how they will be kept safe and healthy in the face of a surge of Covid infections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The DA\u2019s Action Plan will do just this by neutralising as far as possible the massive weaknesses of a corrupt and incapable state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n