​By: Matabo Letsoalo
​The Deputy Minister of Health, Dr Joe Phaahla has assured the Gauteng Province of continued support as it battles increase in COVID-19 cases.
 As part of initiatives to ramp up the fight against the increasing number of positive COVID-19 cases in Gauteng, Dr Phaahla met with the MEC for Health, Dr Nomathemba Mokgethi and CEOs of Academic Hospitals in the province recently.
During the briefing, the CEOs for Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic; Steve Biko Pretoria Academic; Chris Hani Baragwanath and Dr George Mukhari Hospitals shared how the vaccination programme was being rolled out in their respective facilities, as well as management of hospitalised patients. 
The Carletonville Hospital CEO also shared how hospitals in the West Rand District were contributing to the fight against COVID-19.
Key amongst the proposed interventions was a need to increase staff, and consumables such as oxygen in order to manage better the significant increase of COVID-19 patients in the province.
"As National Department of Health, we will support all your efforts to fight this virus. You need to continuously assess progress of vaccination and patient management so gaps can be identified as soon as possible and addressed," said Dr Phaahla.
MEC Mokgethi emphasised the importance of non-pharmaceutical measures to prevent spread of the virus such as proper wearing of masks, hand washing/sanitising, maintaining social distance at all times.
After the briefing, the team visited patients in a recently opened COVID-19 ward at AngloGold Ashanti Hospital, at the time the ward had 19 patients.