In a digital media briefing, Western Cape Premiere Alan Winde said that the province had still not exited its third wave of COVID infections.
With an R value of 0.9, this was the first time in the third wave that the value was below 1. However, this could be due to testing delays caused by the long weekend. Indeed, a sharp daily increase in national COVID cases has been recorded as of Thursday’s latest data, with the NICD reporting a 90% jump to 14 271. Overall case positivity still hovers above the 20% mark at 22.52%.
Cases continue to spike
While overall cases in the Western Cape are plateauing, spikes in certain areas are seeing higher case rates than in the peak of the second wave. Oxygen is still being used as fast as it can be produced in the province, being supplemented by an additional 22 tonnes per day by truck deliveries from other provinces. A total of 3665 patients are in acute hospitals, with 99% occupancy in Metro areas. The Metro area is seeing a week-on-week case rise of 7%, which points to a plateau.
Vaccines proving effective – even against beta
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine however is proving effective, with 91-95% protection against death and 65-66% protection against hospitalisation. With regard to variants, the vaccine confers 67% protection against hospitalisation when beta is dominant and 71% where delta is dominant.
The Western Cape’s vaccination programme remains on track, with 287 000 doses of Pfizer and 28 800 J&J doses to arrive today, Friday 13th.
Elsewhere, with 31.2 new cases per 100 000 people, KwaZulu-Natal may be becoming a COVID hotspot.
A further 473 people have died from COVID, bringing the official death toll to 76 247.
Source: Western Cape Government
