South Africa has recorded 4 406 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the overall number of laboratory-confirmed infections to 3 750 830. This rise reflects a 15.8% increase in positivity rate.
“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”, comments NICD Executive Director Prof Adrian Puren.
He adds that there is currently no evidence that the Omicron variant of concern is being displaced as the dominant circulating variant.
Latest SA COVID-19 stats:
Loading…
According to the NICD, “There may be a backlog of COVID-19 mortality cases reported due to the current audit effort by the National Department of Health (NDoH). Today, the NDoH reports 65 fatalities, with five occurring during the last 24-48 hours. This puts the overall number of fatalities to 100 276.”
Africa CDC warning
Earlier Thursday, the Africa Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention warned countries against laxity in the fight against COVID-19, adding that prevention measures must be upheld to prevent succumbing to another wave.
South Africa is registering high COVID-19 infections compared to other countries in Africa.
Africa has so far recorded over 11.3 million cases of the virus as the Omicron variant continues to drive further infections.
The Africa CDC says in the past week alone, South Africa has registered over 9 000 cases, out of over 16 500 new cases recorded across the continent. Other countries with high infection numbers include Zambia, Seychelles, Egypt and Tunisia.
Director for the Africa CDC Dr John Nkengasong says relaxation of COVID-19 measures in parts of Africa should not make people forget to protect themselves.
“We cannot be complacent; we are still in the pandemic. This virus tends to lure you into a false sense of complacency and then comes back. We have seen this over and over. This is a period to increase our vaccination, the virus is not gone”.
