In response to the third wave driven by the delta variant, President Cyril Ramaphosa instituted a two-week Level 4 lockdown during a ‘family meeting’ address to the nation.
He warned that the healthcare system was facing a dire situation. “Our health facilities are stretched to the limit… ICU beds are in short supply,” he said.
In a press briefing on Friday, the head of the World Health Organization said the COVID Delta variant, first seen in India, is “the most transmissible of the variants identified so far,” and warned it is now spreading in at least 85 countries.
“We are in the exponential phase of the pandemic with the numbers just growing very, very, extremely fast and (they) will keep growing in the next weeks,” said Tulio de Oliveira, a leading virologist in the country.
The Delta variant first seen in India now appears to be “dominating infections in South Africa,” de Oliveira of the Network for Genomic Surveillance in South Africa told a virtual briefing.
Koleka Mlisana, the head of a government ministerial advisory committee on COVID, told the same briefing that there is “evidence that the Delta variant may actually be taking over”.
Acting Minister of Health, Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane said that due to the prevalence of the Delta variant, infection numbers “are likely to surpass the second wave peak” in January.
Only about 2.4 million people have been immunised since February. Thousands of EFF activists rallied in Pretoria on Friday to demand a faster coronavirus vaccination rollout, including expedited approvals for the Sinovac vaccine from China and Russia’s Sputnik V.
Source: Medical Xpress
