Mon 22 November 2021:
South Africa’s national health laboratory service said on Monday, that Covid infections are on the rise in South Africa, weeks ahead of an expected fourth wave in December.
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) reported a “sustained” increase over the past seven days, with the majority of cases discovered in Gauteng, South Africa’s most populous province, which encompasses Johannesburg and Pretoria.
“We are monitoring these trends to see if these increases persist,” said Adrian Puren, interim executive director of the NICD.
He said that while localised increases were expected, “it is hard to say whether the increases indicate the start of a widespread resurgence”.
South Africa, which has the continent’s largest caseload, has registered nearly 2.93 million cases have been detected, with 687 new cases confirmed on Sunday, an increase from approximately 106 earlier this month.
At least 89,574 of the overall cases were fatal.
As of 21 November, just over 24 million vaccines have been administered across the country as government aims to vaccinate 70% of the country’s population by the end of the year.
13 million South Africans are fully vaccinated
SA want to avoid severe lockdowns
SA Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla says his department hopes to avoid to stricter lockdown level.
Speaking to eNCA on Sunday, Phaahla revealed that the Department of Health would advise government against imposing a harder lockdown.
“Well we would want to avoid severe lockdowns […] we are studying the developments everyday.
“We want to do as much as we can in terms of social restrictions to avoid super spreading, but without taking away too much from the liberties of people socially and economically. So we will advise accordingly,” he said.
Meanwhile, Pfizer has applied to the country’s regulatory bodies for approval of its third dose “booster” shot.
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