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Tourism Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane.
(Photo: GCIS)

COVID-19: Western Cape the new epicentre? Govt monitoring the situation

The Western Cape’s third wave of COVID-19 infections is expected to peak rather soon, particularly within the next two weeks

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Tourism Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane.
(Photo: GCIS)

While most parts of the country continue seeing a drop in COVID-19 cases, the Health Ministry has voiced concern over the recent upsurge in the Western Cape.

Acting Health Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi gave an update on the progress that has been made in the fight against the pandemic and the vaccination rollout, on Friday morning, 30 July 2021.

An additional 13 751 new infections of the respiratory disease were recorded in the past 24 hours, which takes the national caseload since the start of the pandemic to 2 422 151.

It’s no secret that Gauteng had been considered the epicentre, particularly of the third wave of infections, but now it seems the Western Cape is fast overtaking, having recorded the most number of cases in the past day.

On Wednesday, 28 July 2021, the country picked up more than 17 000 new cases, prompting questions as to whether the third wave was really over. Kubayi says despite the spike, the number of infections are still on a downward trend.

“We are, however, concerned about the rise of numbers in the Western Cape, which has now surpassed Gauteng in the number of new cases recently,” the minister said.

Tighter restrictions for Western Cape?

Mmamoloko Kubayi says government will continue keeping an eye on the situation in the province and added that, depending on what they conclude, will consult the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC), which governs the lockdown, to intervene and possibly impose some ‘measures.’

“We’ll be keenly watching the situation so that if the numbers continue to rise, we can then ask the NCCC (the National Coronavirus Command Council) and cabinet to introduce the necessary measures. It is important to remember that in anticipation of this, we had Dr Cloete from the Western Cape with us here, who shared the state of readiness”

Acting Health Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi

The Western Cape’s third wave of COVID-19 infections is expected to peak rather soon, particularly within the next two weeks.

“Much of the increase is being driven by the Western Cape, the main reason for that is that Gauteng was about three to four weeks ahead of the curve with this particular resurgence compared to the Western Cape as well as KwaZulu Natal,” Wits University’s Professor Shabir Madhi said on eNCA.