The Gauteng provincial government says it has additional healthcare capacity in anticipation of any surge in COVID-19 cases. Health experts say there’s been an escalation in the number of new cases in Gauteng.
The Emfuleni region in Sedibeng on the Vaal is one of the areas that experts are worried about as numbers there are approaching a third wave threshold.
The increasing numbers have been blamed on family and religious gatherings and people relaxing their adherence to COVID-19 protocols.
Gauteng premier David Makhura says they have secured additional hospital beds, oxygen and extra health care personnel.
•Beds available for COVID-19 response
•Outstanding Projects
•Human Resources #GrowingGautengTogether pic.twitter.com/PzltskOM77— Gauteng Health (@GautengHealth) May 7, 2021
Gauteng is seeing a spike in COVID-19 cases with the numbers having doubled this week alone. Health experts believe these are worrying signs.
Family and religious gatherings are said to be contributing to this spike including the reduced adherence to non-pharmaceutical COVID-19 measures. However, the Gauteng provincial government says it is ready to deal with the surge.
Chairperson of the Gauteng COVID Command Council, Dr Mary Kawonga says over the last six weeks the number of new cases was fairly low but it is now showing a sharp increase.
Last Thursday, the figure was just under 300 cases, but on the same day this week, 688 new COVID-19 cases were recorded.
She says this is very worrying. “We have not yet reached the third wave threshold yet, but we are very worried. We are concerned about the spike. All our districts have seen a spike. The highest increase has been in Johannesburg, Tshwane and Sedibeng. Emfuleni is actually the most worrying area. It has had the highest number of new COVID-19 cases per day, per week in our province. The numbers in that area are approaching a third wave threshold.”
She blamed this on people relaxing their adherence to COVID-19 protocols. They also found clusters of COVID-19 cases in schools where they had sporting events, religious and family gatherings.
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Antibodies
Professor of Vaccinology at the University of the Witwatersrand, Shabir Madhi presented the results of a survey in which over 5 500 people were tested for antibodies in their blood. This was to measure the percentage of individuals who were previously infected with COVID-19 in Gauteng. The survey was carried out between October 2020 and January 2021.
Madhi says close to 38% of people in Gauteng were infected with the virus.
“Interestingly, people living in informal settlements were less likely to be infected than people living in formal housing or in apartments. And that does not come as too much of a surprise because you probably got better ventilation in a shack, unfortunately. And there are fewer people living in a shack than in a formal house,” says Madhi.
He says in three weeks’ time there’s going to be more COVID-19 cases.
‘Third wave could be less severe’
Madhi says the COVID-19 third wave could be less severe provided the virus does not mutate.
“The target is to get 40 million people vaccinated. In fact, we don’t need to get 40 million people to get to a relatively normal lifestyle. What we need to do is get 80 to 90% of the high risk groups vaccinated. And if we can do that we can get back to a normal lifestyle. COVID-19 is going to be here for the rest of our lifetime. We need to be comfortable with that. But it is about protecting people from dying. And it is about preventing our hospitals from being overwhelmed and the way to do that is to vaccinate high risk individuals.”
There is still a high number of people who have not been infected with COVID-19 and therefore, are susceptible to the virus because they are not protected by antibodies.
Premier Makhura says this will guide their vaccine rollout plan. “Less affected have been good during the 1st and the 2nd wave. But think of it this way, the less affected are the greatest risk for the third wave. And that’s what we are going to be focusing on right now.”
See the graphic below for the latest COVID-19 numbers in SA:
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