No reason to panic about virus variant – but Mkhize has stern message for the youth

We knew the second wave was coming, but none of us expected it to come as quickly as it did, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said on Friday during his live panel discussion on the Covid-19 situation in South Africa.

This after it was announced that a new fast-spreading variant of the Sars-CoV-2 has been prevalent in tests during the second wave in South Africa.

“We don’t know where it came from and how it was formed,” Professor Salim Abdool Karim said during Health Minister Zweli Mkhize’s panel discussion on Friday.

He added that the new variant was first found in Nelson Mandela Bay, and they don’t know yet how severe this variant could be.

A similar variant was found in other countries, like the UK and Australia, but the prevalence is much higher in South Africa at between 18% and 19% of all cases, Karim said.

It would take a little time to know if vaccines will be effective against this variant, he said, as it is still being studied.

However, the same treatment and strategies seem to be working so far.

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But our behaviour during the festive season is likely to worsen the spread, Mkhize said.

“We’ve noticed a degree of complacency, concerning the wearing of masks, the use of hand sanitizers, and so on. We’ve picked up a number of cluster outbreaks, which we attribute to this complacency.

“The other concern is that the second wave is increasing during this season, but we believe it’s likely to increase after this season, because we have people coming together now and there has been a lot of movement of people to other provinces.”

That movement is going to be reversed early in the year, Mkhize said, so it well may have another bump where the numbers increase. So what will be happening in January is another reason for concern, he said.

“The other reason for concern is the high number of 14 to 19-year-olds who have tested positive, in higher numbers than what we’ve seen before.”

“This, and the news of a new mutant variant, should say to us we should be concerned, but it’s not a reason to panic.”

It is going to be important for us to emphasise what we know works, like wearing masks, using sanitizers, hand washing and distancing. To deal with the variant, we have to emphasise that we have to adhere to these, Mkhize said.

“We must gear up for a stronger fight against Covid-19.”

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However, new restrictions won’t be necessary, unless there’s a new issue to take care of.

About the effectiveness of the vaccines are concerned – as far as we know, they will be effective to deal with the issue of a new variant, he said. “Unless there’s new research that shows there’s a problem with the vaccines, we’ll continue with the program of the vaccines when the vaccines come next year.”

“I want to take this opportunity to speak to the youth… it has been mostly young people who have tested positive” during the second wave.

“Younger, previously healthy people are now becoming very sick.

“Despite warnings in recent weeks, we continue to see news of young people partying, not wearing masks and some clearly intoxicated… they throw caution to the wind and don’t care about the consequences.

“It cannot be that our youth only adhere to lifesaving measures only after being polices to do so.

“We call on parents and caregivers, and our youth, to understand that it’s now not just a matter of thinking about others, but even about yourself. You are putting yourself at risk of dying of Covid-19.”

It is important that the enjoyment must never actually be a reason why we lose another life, and that is a point our youth need to be able to understand. There is enough knowledge know that we are able to save everyone and ourselves, Mkhize said.

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