Johannesburg: South Africa The country’s health minister said on Friday that it may have entered a new wave of COVID-19 earlier than expected as new infections and hospitalizations rose sharply over the past two weeks.
The increase in new cases has been dominated by the BA.4 and BA.5 lineages of the Omicron type, which dominated the country’s first virus wave.
“The way you look at it suggests that we may actually be entering a fifth wave much earlier,” Health Minister Joe Fahla said in a televised press briefing on Friday.
He said officials would watch carefully over the next few days to see if this increase continued, which would confirm a new wave.
The country’s new infections are now several thousand per day, up from a few hundred a few weeks ago.
According to Fahla, there was currently no information indicating the emergence of a new strain, which scientists had previously suggested could be expected during the country’s upcoming winter season from May to June.
“We have always been informed that when a new wave arrives, it will be powered by a newer version, but at this stage we have not been alerted to a definitive new version except for changes to Omicron,” Fahla said.
He said three South African provinces – Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape – currently account for 85 percent of new infections, with positivity rates in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal exceeding 20 percent.
New cases are leading to hospitalizations but are still relatively low, Dr. Wasila Jassti from national institute for communicable diseasessaid.
“We are starting to see a marginal increase in hospital admissions in the private and public sector,” Jasat said.
“Since April 17th, we are seeing a sharp increase in hospital admissions.”
South Africa Africa has experienced the highest number of infections since the start of the pandemic in 2020, accounting for more than a quarter of the continent’s 11.4 million cases.
More than 252,000 people have died from the virus in South Africa, but the number is thought to be much higher given the number of more deaths recorded since the pandemic than in the same period before the pandemic.
More than 44 percent of South Africa’s adult population has been vaccinated.
The increase in new cases has been dominated by the BA.4 and BA.5 lineages of the Omicron type, which dominated the country’s first virus wave.
“The way you look at it suggests that we may actually be entering a fifth wave much earlier,” Health Minister Joe Fahla said in a televised press briefing on Friday.
He said officials would watch carefully over the next few days to see if this increase continued, which would confirm a new wave.
The country’s new infections are now several thousand per day, up from a few hundred a few weeks ago.
According to Fahla, there was currently no information indicating the emergence of a new strain, which scientists had previously suggested could be expected during the country’s upcoming winter season from May to June.
“We have always been informed that when a new wave arrives, it will be powered by a newer version, but at this stage we have not been alerted to a definitive new version except for changes to Omicron,” Fahla said.
He said three South African provinces – Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape – currently account for 85 percent of new infections, with positivity rates in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal exceeding 20 percent.
New cases are leading to hospitalizations but are still relatively low, Dr. Wasila Jassti from national institute for communicable diseasessaid.
“We are starting to see a marginal increase in hospital admissions in the private and public sector,” Jasat said.
“Since April 17th, we are seeing a sharp increase in hospital admissions.”
South Africa Africa has experienced the highest number of infections since the start of the pandemic in 2020, accounting for more than a quarter of the continent’s 11.4 million cases.
More than 252,000 people have died from the virus in South Africa, but the number is thought to be much higher given the number of more deaths recorded since the pandemic than in the same period before the pandemic.
More than 44 percent of South Africa’s adult population has been vaccinated.