SA may be over the peak for now, but it’s not over: Mkhize

HEALTH Minister, Dr Zweli Mkhize, has expressed cautious optimism as the country’s Covid-19 cases take a dip and government bolsters efforts to prevent further transmission of the deadly virus.

The country is now recording an average of 3 000 daily cases from about 12 000 per day about a month or so ago.

On the other hand, the number of tests has also been reducing.

“We started calling each other to ask if we’re missing something and what has happened to the tests? Our starting point was to talk to the laboratory services and ask if they have enough diagnostic kits to conduct the tests and they assured us that they have,” he said, adding that there is no backlog.

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The major provinces that were carrying the highest burden of the virus are on a downward trend, while some have plateaued.

“We’re very optimistic, but we’re very cautious about it because we don’t know why that happened. While the surge was anticipated, the surge has happened in numbers that are much less than originally planned,” he said.

Mkhize said it looks like the country is over the peak even though the predictions project that there is still another two months of concern about a possible surge.

“We have received queries as to why there would be a need for the surge team if we are past the peak. The explanation is that we can never take anything for granted, we’d rather err on the side of caution. We have not passed anything yet; we’ll only know when we’re many months away from the positive cases being reported in the country.”

He urged people to keep up the levels of containment and continue to be vigilant.

Caxton Local Media Covid-19 reporting

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At the time of going to press, the contents of this feature mirrored South Africa’s lockdown regulations.

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