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Extensive testing needed to show true picture of COVID-19 infections: Wits Professor

COVID-19
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Head of Vaccinology at Wits University, Professor Shabir Madhi says South Africa needs to focus on reducing the rate of the coronavirus COVID-19 infections in communities as it responds to the pandemic.

He says the increasing numbers of infections daily are a result of aggressive testing of members of communities to identify new cases.

South Africa has seen an increase in the number of new COVID-19 infections daily.

The COVID-19 death toll in South Africa has risen to 79,  with 4 220 confirmed cases.

Madhi says we need to be conducting at least 15 000 tests daily to get a true picture of infections in the community.

“We need to focus on slowing down the rate of new infections rather than being fixated with any number of people that are being infected. Because it’s the rate of the infection that is going to influence whether our healthcare facilities are going to cope with an increase in terms of the number of COVID19 admissions, how many people die and over what period of time. So our focus mustn’t be on a specific number, our focus needs to be on strategy on how we slow the rate of infection of the virus.”

Latest COVID-19 stats below:

On Thursday, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the lockdown would be eased from May 1 to level 4.

 

 

 

President Ramaphosa warns of coronavirus outbreak peak

President Cyril Ramaphosa says there is an expected peak in the number of COVID-19 infections in the coming months.

The spike is expected to occur between the months of August and September.

On Friday, Ramaphosa visited quarantine facilities in Gauteng.

In the below video, President Ramaphosa visits Gauteng’s 500-bed quarantine site:

 

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