Johannesburg: South Africa may enter the wave of Covid-19 infection of the fifth earlier than expected, after an increase in infection that is sustainable for the past 14 days, Minister of Health Joe Phaahla said on Friday.
“What remains stable … is the acceptance of hospitals including the ICU (intensive care unit), not a very dramatic change,” Phaahla told a press conference. “There is also an increase in death, not too dramatic from the low base.”
He said that at this stage the health authority had not been told about the new variant, in addition to changes to the dominant circulating, Omicron.
South Africa has recorded the most infection and death of Covid in Africa to date, with more than 3.7 million cases confirmed and more than 100,000 deaths during the Pandemic.
On Thursday, WHO’s African office marked an increase in South African Covid infection as the main driver of uptick in infections in the African continent.
