Minister of Health Permanent mask wearing social distancing new covid laws

CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA – AUGUST 20: New Health Minister Joe Phaahla and Western Cape Health minister Nomafrench Mbombo on a site visit at the Grand West on August 20, 2021 in Cape Town, South Africa – Gallo Images / Brenton Geach

COVID-19: Gauteng has exited the fourth wave – Health Minister

Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla says all other eight provinces have reached their peaks in the current fourth wave and are now on a decline

Minister of Health Permanent mask wearing social distancing new covid laws

CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA – AUGUST 20: New Health Minister Joe Phaahla and Western Cape Health minister Nomafrench Mbombo on a site visit at the Grand West on August 20, 2021 in Cape Town, South Africa – Gallo Images / Brenton Geach

Gauteng is out of the woods for now as far as COVID-19 is concerned: Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla says the province has exited the fourth wave of cases, which were largely driven by the Omicron variant.

Phaahla gave an update on the progress made in taking on the respiratory illness as well as the vaccination rollout. The Omicron variant was first detected by South African scientists in November, prompting a surge in cases all over the world.

The minister says in the previous week the Western Cape had the highest number of new cases followed by KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng. All other provinces accounted for only 11% of cases during the same period.

He adds that over the past 7 days, there has been a 4.8% reduction in reported deaths.

While Gauteng which was once the epicentre for the Omicron variant, has emerged from the fourth wave, Phaahla couldn’t exactly say the same for other provinces, but noted that they have all reached their peak.

“Gauteng province has officially exited the 4th wave in terms of the technical definition of a wave, we can now say officially that Gauteng has technically exited the 4th wave this week while all other eight provinces have reached their peaks and are now on a decline,”

Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla

COVID-19 CASES: SA’S RECOVERY RATE ‘VERY ENCOURAGING’

In addition, Dr Joe Phaahla says as of Thursday, 13 January, there has been a 27,4% reduction in new cases compared to seven days prior nationally and the reduction is in all provinces.

He also says here has been a 6,3% reduction in hospitalisation compared to seven days earlier, but noted that provinces such as Mpumalanga, Northern Cape and Western Cape reported increase in hospital admissions.

“The national recovery rate is 94,4% and current active cases are 106 883 which is a 22,7% reduction over the past 24 hours. The positivity rate of tests has gone down from the highest of 25-30% at the last week of December to 14 % yesterday”

“Hospital admissions were rising in the middle of December when we provided our last update, but have been on steady decline since the last week of December. Overall admissions to hospital over this 4th wave have been much lower than the previous 3 waves”

Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla