The Health Department want to assure South Africans that we have NOT hit a third wave. However, we are still at risk, and we need to be on heightened vigilance as a country.
Johannesburg, South Africa (13 May 2021) – While the number of COVID-19 cases has been steadily increasing; South Africa has not hit the third wave yet.
This, according to the Department of Health, the number of new infections peaked from 8 593 cases between 26 April to 2 May. Between 3 May and 9 May, cases rose to 12 531, constituting a 46% increase.
South Africa’s COVID-19 total positive cases have crossed the 1.6 million mark after 2 759 new cases were logged on Wednesday, but the country currently only has 27,329 active cases.
“As much as these figures are worrying, our resurgence dashboard, which was developed by the South African COVID-19 Modelling Consortium, which is updated thrice a week, still shows that we have not, as the country reached a resurgence threshold though some districts in the country are fast approaching the threshold,” the department’s statement read.
Healthcare workers
The department said 25 healthcare workers tested positive for COVID-19 between 3 May and 9 May, pushing the cumulative number to 56 059 to date. According to the department, 7 839 required admission, 6 881 have been discharged, and 83 are currently admitted.
“Healthcare workers constitute 3.51% of all cases of COVID-19 reported in the country. Accumulatively, 874 deaths have been recorded among the healthcare workers.”
Current Statistics
South Africa’s Active Cases have stayed under 30,000 for 68 days now. In the last 24 hours, we have seen an increase of 2,759 new coronavirus infections in the country, which brings our active cases to 27,329 and our recoveries to 1,519,734. We currently have a 96,6% recovery rate in closed cases and are making our way to even more recoveries every day.
Here are today’s total numbers:
- Recoveries: 1,519,734 (476 more than yesterday)
- Active Cases: 27,329 (2,211 more than yesterday)
- Deaths: 54,968 (72 more than yesterday)
- Vaccinations: 430,730 (16,358 more than yesterday)
We can also break down the Active Cases further to see where each region stands:
Related Story
- Gauteng: 5,651
- KwaZulu-Natal: 5,591
- Free State: 4,984
- Northern Cape: 4,445
- North West: 3,626
- Western Cape: 1,396
- Mpumalanga: 979
- Limpopo: 386
- Eastern Cape: 271
High alert
In the meantime, the department is working with provinces to update their resurgence plans to ensure that these are activated. These plans mainly include case management, contact tracing, oxygen availability, bed capacity, respiratory support equipment and human resources.
“As the country, we are on high alert, and we know that the main drivers of the new wave will either be the resurgence of new variants and/or the fatigue from adherence to non-pharmaceutical interventions.”
The department is also working closely with the genomic sequencing team to ensure they can pick up new variants earlier.
“So we want to assure South Africans that we have not yet hit the third wave; however, we are at risk, and we hence need to be on heightened vigilance as a country,” it said.
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