Another important issue is critical shortages in medical personnel.

Dr Rinesh Chetty, a specialist orthopaedic surgeon in KZN, is quoted as saying the surge of infections has broken the back of efforts to keep the pandemic at bay.  

He said, "we need everybody to really band together, the burnout is a major problem."

"We're losing staff, we're losing doctors, we're losing nurses, paramedics, our loved ones. We need help, we need manpower, the government needs to make some policies too, the main thing is the manpower, it's not about beds."

"Everyone thinks the bed needs to be there but someone needs to man those beds. It's okay having 10-million ventilators but we need staff, we need manpower and we need everybody to help."

eNCA