The Minister of Health, Joe Phaahla says Covid-19 is not over and daily infections are rising once again. Phaahla is pleading with people to continue adhering to the remaining restrictions.
"Covid is not over. What we see daily despite the disaster is that the positivity rate is rising again," he said.
"What's
stable is hospital admissions. All these things are still worrying. We want to assist the community with basic precautions.
"If we can just get through this winter and the situation can stabilise, we're optimistic this can be over and we can live without any major restrictions."
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5th Wave Expected to be less Severe:
Discovery chief executive Adrian Gore has previously indicated a fifth Covid wave in South Africa is likely to be a lot more benign and less severe compared to previous waves, but that the group will still treat it with caution.
Gore said Covid variants appear to emerge in parallel to one another - so there is no reason why the next
wave will be less severe than previous ones.
However, he noted that the virus is expected to become more benign and endemic as time goes on.
Epidemiologist Professor Salim Abdool Karim also expects South Africa to see its fifth wave at the end of April or early May.
"While it may be more severe, we still think this is unlikely; but it is a risk and, therefore, I think we need to be careful not to take a hard view.
The overriding position as a planner or business leader is to expect the best but plan for the worst and make sure you can survive some severity of a wave."
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