A man receives a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against Covid-19, at a vaccination centre in Guatemala City. Photo: AFP/Johan Ordonez
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) said 2,320 new Covid-19 cases have been identified in South Africa during the last 24 hours.
This brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases in the country to 3,671,991 – representing a 7.0% positivity rate increase.
More than 23 million tests have been conducted in both the public and private sectors since the first case was recorded in South Africa, and 33,021 tests were conducted since Friday’s Covid-19 update.
The majority of new Covid-19 cases – approximately 37% – were reported in Gauteng, followed by Western Cape with 20%, and Kwa-Zulu Natal (KZN) with 15%.
The North West accounted for 8%, while Mpumalanga accounted for 7%, the Free State accounted for 6%, the Eastern Cape and Limpopo each accounted for 3% respectively.
Only 1% of the latest spate of new cases were recorded in the Northern Cape. The 7-day average is 7.7%, which is 0.1% lower than Friday’s data.
The National Department of Health reported 46 deaths, however, only six deaths were recorded during the last 48 hours, bringing the total fatalities to 99,191.
The discrepancy in the data is due to a backlog of Covid-19 mortality cases reported; the health department is conducting an ongoing audit to clear the backlog.
Earlier this week, government announced all vaccinated individuals older than 18 years of age may receive a booster dose of either Johnson & Johnson or Pfizer 90 days after receiving the vaccine.
Government also changed the reduction of the time interval between the first and second doses of the Pfizer vaccine.
Those who are vaccinated no longer have to wait 42 days to get their Pfizer second dose. Instead, the waiting period was reduced to 21 days.
Meanwhile, South Africa is likely to see another spike in Covid-19 infections, according to epidemiologist Professor Salim Abdool Karim.
Speaking to Jacaranda, Karim said South Africa is currently at the start of a three-month ‘lull’ period and should use this time to prepare for the fifth wave.
He said it was impossible to tell when the next wave will begin and said government is “working on a rough basis” that a new wave will come around every three months.
“The Omicron wave ended about two weeks ago so that means we now have about three months, and we can predict that we will likely see the fifth wave around the end of April or thereabouts”.
Reporting by AFP.
The United Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Friday drastically revised its guidelines for masking to stop Covid-19 transmission.
As per new guidelines, most Americans won’t be advised to wear masks in indoor public spaces, including school children.
“We’re in a stronger place today as a nation with more tools to protect ourselves and our communities from Covid-19,” said Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC.
This week, only Asia saw a deterioration in its situation, with one fifth more cases.
But in all other regions of the world, the pandemic waned.
There were 39% fewer cases in the Middle East, 3% fewer in the United States-Canada zone, down 24% in both Africa and the Latin America-Caribbean zone, a fifth fewer in Europe and 12% less in Oceania.
Covid-19 killed at least 5,925,534 people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to an AFP tally compiled from official sources Friday.
The Covid-19 pandemic continued its strong retreat this week around the world, except in Asia where the number of cases increased by a fifth.
The United States has recorded the most Covid-19 deaths with 944,831, followed by Brazil with 647,390 deaths, and India with 513,226 deaths.
Taking into account excess mortality linked to Covid-19, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates the true death toll could be two to three times higher.
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