Ramaphosa to act as Covid-19 infection rate rises

South Africans are expected to be reined in a bit by President Cyril Ramaphosa ahead of the festive season fortnight as the Covid infection rate continues to climb while vaccination is just not keeping up.

Just over 25% of the population is now fully vaccinated, while 6 300 new cases were recorded. Queues at testing facilities have returned to first wave levels.

Covid-19 infection rate

Complacency is dangerous

Chief executive of Medicare 24 Mike van Wyk said: “The omicron Covid-19 variant came as a surprise to many of us who thought that the delta variant would be the final big wave goodbye as vaccination efforts were stepped up.”

But, he said, South Africans have not headed out in their numbers to get the jab, and “nobody anticipated that the virus would mutate again into a variant that’s more similar to its alpha cousin than delta”.

Van Wyk added that while rumours of omicron’s mildness abound, complacency is dangerous.

“We have seen some milder cases, but also several patients who have become really ill.”

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Vaccine hoarding

The continent is also staring down the barrel of a pending Covid crisis. Only 6% of Africa’s population of 1.2 billion have been fully vaccinated.

It’s become politicised with many organisations blaming richer countries for vaccine hoarding.

Former British prime minister Gordon Brown wrote in The Guardian: “Despite the repeated warnings of health leaders, our failure to put vaccines into the arms of people in the developing world is now coming back to haunt us. We were forewarned – and yet here we are.”

Highly transmissible

Chair of the SA Medical Research Council Professor Glenda Gray said omicron was highly infectious. “Omicron is as transmissible, if not more, than delta.

“The most impactful way to manage this surge is to increase vaccine coverage. Importantly, to get households vaccinated.”

Gray previously told the Washington Post South Africans seem apathetic to getting vaccinated. Until the country achieves a higher jab rate, she said, infection surges will happen repeatedly.

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Apathetic sentiment for Covid-19 infection rate

Netnographer and digital analyst Carmen Murray concurred: “We are seeing a similar pattern of apathetic sentiment seen with the local government elections, so it’s not simply a case of vaccine hesitancy, but rather a ‘ah well things are not so bad, tomorrow is another day’ kind of attitude toward the pandemic.”

She said that while negative sentiment on Meltwater analysis shows hesitancy, it’s the large proportion of neutrality in online conversation that is of concern.

“Search activity also shows that interest is waning in anything Covid-19, bar curiosity when a new variant is named.”

Yet Van Wyk said most people testing for Covid-19 at Medicare24’s seven testing stations turn out positive.

“The ratio is 85% positive, the balance negative – and that is concerning.”

– news@citizen.co.za