The Gauteng Provincial Government says it will not call for the province to be placed under a stricter COVID-19 lockdown.
The province is witnessing a sizeable increase in daily COVID-19 infections ahead of the festive season.
Ntsakisi Maleleki, @GautengHealth:
1. There has been a more than 50% increase in new hospital admissions in GP over the past week and a 19% increase in the positivity rate #OmicronVariant
2. Almost all admissions are unvaccinated people pic.twitter.com/AaIPpFlnWS— Mia Malan (@miamalan) December 3, 2021
In the last 24 hours, Gauteng recorded more than 8 000 cases.
Premier David Makhura’s Spokesperson Vuyo Mhaga says stricter lockdown will have a devastating impact on the economy of the province.
“Although the numbers are really surging, we won’t encourage the government or national government to really put us on lockdown beyond where we are which is lockdown level 1. As I have said, that will actually have a devastating effect…and we are really trying to get the economy of Gauteng back to its feet. So really, a further lockdown will actually devastate us. So we were quite pleased when the President retained level lockdown 1,” says Mhaga.
Omicron is now the dominant variant in Gauteng:
Concerns over unvaccinated residents
On Thursday, Makhura expressed concern about the eight-million unvaccinated people in the province.
He fears that they are the ones who may severely fall prey to the Omicron variant, and that may accelerate its spread.
Makhura gave an update on COVID-19 in the province and outlined government’s plans to deal with the fourth wave and the Omicron variant.
Makhura also said Gauteng is seeing a rapid rise in new infections:
