South Africa ‘technically’ enters third Covid-19 wave
A 'To Let' sign hangs in the window of a once-popular Rosa's bakery and cafe, which has now closed its doors, in the Cape Town city centre, South Africa, on April 23, 2021. Restaurants and similar businesses, based on people sitting down, have suffered as a result of South Africa's fight against the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
What you need to know:
- South Africa, which has the highest national tally of Covid-19 in Africa, moved to lockdown level two from the previous level one from May 31.
Cape town. South Africa "technically" entered the third wave of COVID-19 on Thursday according to the statistics, the country's National Institute for Communicable Diseases said in a statement of daily update on Covid-19.
The national seven-day moving average incidence, which reached 5,959 cases, exceeded the new wave threshold defined by the Ministerial Advisory Committee of the government. The threshold was defined as 30 per cent of the peak incidence of the previous wave.
The statement also reported 9,149 new Covid-19 cases, bringing the national tally to 1,722,086. Thursday's positivity testing rate was 15.7 per cent, it said.
The majority of new cases reported on Thursday were from the Gauteng province, which hosts the nation's economic hub Johannesburg and the administrative capital Pretoria, accounting for 61 per cent of the cases, according to the statement. Western Cape province, home to the legislative capital Cape Town, came second with 10 per cent of the new cases, it read.
Previously, four of South Africa's nine provinces, including Northern Cape, Free State, North West and Gauteng, had already entered a third wave at the provincial level. On Thursday morning, Western Cape said it was entering the third wave.
Vaccination goals
The nation plans to vaccinate about 67 per cent of the population by the end of this year with three phases to achieve herd immunity.
Following the first phase for healthcare workers only, the current second phase inoculates persons aged 60 years and above first, who will be followed by other groups of people including essential workers, persons in congregate settings and persons over 18 years of age with co-morbidities.
South Africa, which has the highest national tally of Covid-19 in Africa, moved to lockdown level two from the previous level one from May 31 as the number of infections began to rise sharply in several parts of the country and the positivity rate more than doubled in a month, from around 4 per cent to more than 11 per cent.
Africa summary
Meanwhile, at least 49,083,332 Covid-19 tests have been conducted by African countries, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said Thursday.
The Africa CDC said 921,719 new tests were carried out during the past week, registering a 4 per cent decrease from tests carried out in the previous week that was 956,157, the agency announced in its latest continental update.
According to the agency, the overall positivity rate of the continent was 10.1 per cent.
As of Thursday, the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in Africa had reached 4,969,847, with 133,543 deaths and 4,477,813 recoveries, according to the agency.
South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia, Ethiopia and Egypt are the countries with the most cases in the continent, according to the Africa CDC.
South Africa has recorded the highest Covid-19 cases in Africa at 1,712,939 while the northern African country of Morocco reported 522,389 cases as of Thursday.
