{"id":579710,"date":"2022-04-22T07:45:44","date_gmt":"2022-04-22T05:45:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=579710"},"modified":"2022-04-22T07:45:44","modified_gmt":"2022-04-22T05:45:44","slug":"south-africa-sees-jump-in-covid-cases-raising-concerns-of-possible-fifth-wave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/579710\/south-africa-sees-jump-in-covid-cases-raising-concerns-of-possible-fifth-wave\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa sees jump in Covid cases &#8211; raising concerns of possible fifth wave"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa has reported a notable increase in Covid cases, raising concerns that the country could be seeing the start of the fifth wave of infections.<\/p>\n<p>South Africa\u2019s coronavirus test positivity rate climbed to the highest in more than three months this week, indicating that the number of undetected infections may be rising.<\/p>\n<p>The National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) reported 4,406 new cases on Thursday evening (21 April), with\u00a027,875 tests conducted in the previous 24 hours. This represents a 15.8% positivity rate.<\/p>\n<p>With many cases of the virus going undiagnosed, the positivity rate is seen as an indication of how fast the disease is spreading. Countries from South Africa to India are reporting rising infections, while experts are cautioning against dropping the mandate for people to wear masks on US aeroplanes as the virus lingers.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The public should exercise caution in interpreting these data as there may be changes in test patterns. An early warning indicator, wastewater detection surveillance, shows an increase in Gauteng,&#8221; said NICD executive director, prof Adrian Puren.<\/p>\n<p>He added that there is currently no evidence that the Omicron variant of concern is being displaced as the dominant circulating variant.<\/p>\n<p>The increase is also not entirely unexpected, with both government and the private sector forecasting a possible rise in infections at the end of April and the start of May.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/COVID19UPDATE?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#COVID19UPDATE<\/a>: 27,875 tests were conducted in the last 24hrs, with 4,406 new cases, which represents a 15.8% positivity rate. Today <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HealthZA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@HealthZA<\/a> reports 65 deaths; of which 5 occurred in the past 24\u201348 hrs. Total fatalities are 100,276 to date: Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/0M0LjHX3vW\">https:\/\/t.co\/0M0LjHX3vW<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/sxY6yfH2wd\">pic.twitter.com\/sxY6yfH2wd<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 NICD (@nicd_sa) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/nicd_sa\/status\/1517177024284135436?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 21, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>In a statement at the end of March, president Cyril Ramaphosa&#8217;s cabinet said South Africans should remain vigilant as Covid-19 has not yet been \u2018defeated\u2019, and that the country faces a possible fifth wave of Covid infections in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cVaccination remains our best defence against the virus, and reduces the risk of serious illness, hospitalisation and death.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAlthough infections and deaths currently remain low, we face a possible fifth wave in the coming weeks. The only defence we have is the scientific evidence showing the power of vaccines to save lives. Our country has already administered over 33 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccines.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Discovery chief executive Adrian Gore has previously indicated a fifth Covid wave in South Africa is likely to be a lot more benign and less severe compared to previous waves, but that the group will still treat it with caution.<\/p>\n<p>Gore said Covid variants appear to emerge in parallel to one another \u2013 so there is no reason why the next wave will be less severe than previous ones. However, he noted that the virus is expected to become more benign and endemic as time goes on. Based on these patterns, Gore said a wave could arrive in South Africa at the end of April and early May.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile it may be more severe, we still think this is unlikely; but it is a risk and, therefore, I think we need to be careful not to take a hard view. The overriding position as a planner or business leader is to expect the best but plan for the worst and make sure you can survive some severity of a wave.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>With further reporting by Bloomberg.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/579614\/one-of-south-africas-major-cities-is-facing-a-water-day-zero-at-the-end-of-may-business-chamber-warns\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">One of South Africa\u2019s major cities is facing a water \u2018day zero\u2019 at the end of May, business chamber warns<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa has reported a notable increase in Covid cases over the last week, raising concerns the country could be at the start of the fifth wave of infections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":488661,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-579710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=579710"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579710\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":579734,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579710\/revisions\/579734"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}