Announcement

**sharon sanders** · April 23, 2022, 06:02 AM

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**Shiloh** · April 29, 2022, 01:48 PM

Source: https://nationalpost.com/pmn/health-...fth-covid-wave

South Africa says it may be entering fifth COVID wave
Reuters
Alexander Winning and Wendell Roelf
Publishing date:
Apr 29, 2022 • 9 hours ago • 1 minute read •

JOHANNESBURG — South Africa may be entering a fifth COVID wave earlier than expected after a sustained rise in infections over the past 14 days that seems to be driven by the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron sub-variants, health officials and scientists said on Friday.

The country that has recorded the most coronavirus cases and deaths on the African continent only exited a fourth wave around January and had predicted a fifth wave could start in May or June, early in the southern hemisphere winter...

**Pathfinder** · April 29, 2022, 05:59 PM

LATEST CONFIRMED CASES OF COVID-19 IN SOUTH AFRICA (29 APRIL 2022)

29 April , 2022

The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), a division of the National Health Laboratory Service, continues to provide laboratory-based surveillance to inform the public health response towards COVID-19 in South Africa.

Today the institute reports 4,954 new COVID-19 cases that have been identified in South Africa, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3,785,398. This increase represents an 22.5% positivity rate. Today, the NDoH reports 5 deaths, and of these 2 occurred in the past 24 – 48 hours. This brings the total fatalities to 100,360 to date.
...
PROVINCIAL BREAKDOWN

The majority of new cases today are from Gauteng (44%), followed by Kwa-Zulu Natal (27%). Western Cape accounted for 12%; Eastern Cape accounted for 6%; Free State accounted for 4%; North West accounted for 3%; Mpumalanga accounted for 2%; and Limpopo and Northern Cape each accounted for 1% respectively of today’s new cases.
...

THE 7-DAY MOVING AVERAGE NUMBER OF NEW CASES BY PROVINCE
The proportion of positive new cases/total new tested today is (22.5%), and is higher than yesterday (18.3%). The 7-day average is (19.0%) today, and is higher than yesterday (18.3%).

For detailed information, visit the GIS Dashboard.

HOSPITAL ADMISSIONS
There has been an increase of 121 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours.

...
https://www.nicd.ac.za/latest-confir...29-april-2022/

**sharon sanders** · April 30, 2022, 06:05 AM

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**Pathfinder** · May 6, 2022, 02:24 PM

LATEST CONFIRMED CASES OF COVID-19 IN SOUTH AFRICA (5 MAY 2022)

5 May , 2022

The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), a division of the National Health Laboratory Service, continues to provide laboratory-based surveillance to inform the public health response towards COVID-19 in South Africa.

Today the institute reports 9,757 new COVID-19 cases that have been identified in South Africa, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3 818 125. This increase represents a 25.9% positivity rate.

Today, the National Department of Health (NDoH) reports 64 deaths and of these, 7 occurred in the past 24 – 48 hours. This brings the total fatalities to 100,471 to date.
...
PROVINCIAL BREAKDOWN

The majority of new cases today are from Gauteng Province (44%) followed by KwaZulu-Natal (24%). Western Cape accounted for 13%; Eastern Cape accounted for 6%; Free State accounted for 5%; Mpumalanga accounted for 3%; North West accounted for 2%; and Limpopo and Northern Cape each accounted for 1% respectively of today’s new cases.
...
THE 7-DAY MOVING AVERAGE NUMBER OF NEW CASES BY PROVINCE

The proportion of positive new cases/total new tested today is (25.9%), and is higher than yesterday (22.6%). The 7-day average is (21.9%) today, and is higher than yesterday (20.8%). The 7-day moving average daily number of cases has increased.

For more detailed information, visit the GIS Dashboard.

HOSPITAL ADMISSIONS

There has been an increase of 135 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours.
...

LATEST CONFIRMED CASES OF COVID-19 IN SOUTH AFRICA (5 May 2022) - NICD

https://www.nicd.ac.za/latest-confirmed-cases-of-covid-19-in-south-africa-5-may-2022/

The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), a division of the National Health Laboratory Service, continues to provide laboratory-based surveillance to inform the public health response towards COVID-19 in South Africa. Today the institute reports 9,757 new COVID-19 cases that have been identified in South Africa, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3 818 125. […]

**Pathfinder** · May 6, 2022, 02:33 PM

Translation Google

South Africa: 50% more new cases of Covid-19 in 24 hours

Published on :05/05/2022 - 22:20
Modified :05/05/2022 - 22:18

Johannesburg (AFP) – The number of new cases of Covid-19 in South Africa has increased by more than 50% in 24 hours, according to official figures published on Thursday, a new wave driven in particular by two new sub-variants of Omicron.

The National Institute for Contagious Diseases has identified 9,757 new cases of Covid-19 in the country, or 50% more compared to the 6,170 new cases recorded the day before Wednesday.

According to him, more than a quarter (25.9%) of people tested had a positive result, the highest rate recorded in months. The Covid-19 has also killed seven people in the past two days.

South Africa, the country officially hardest hit on the continent by Covid-19, has entered a new wave of the pandemic, the Center for Epidemic Response and Innovation (CERI) warned at the end of April.

The country of nearly 60 million people, where less than 45% of the adult population is fully immunized, has officially recorded more than 3.8 million cases and some 100,350 deaths.

At the beginning of March, it had experienced a period of 48 hours without any death linked to Covid-19, a first since 2020. President Cyril Ramaphosa announced in early April the lifting of all legal restrictions linked to the pandemic.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), two new sub-variants of Omicron, the virulence of which has yet to be determined, are behind the new wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in the country.

“South African scientists who identified Omicron late last year have now flagged two other Omicron sub-variants, BA.4 and BA.5, as causing a spike in cases in South Africa," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday.

The South African government confirmed on Thursday the obligation to wear a mask for children at school, changing its mind shortly after announcing its lifting, while new cases of Covid-19 are increasing day by day.

The Ministry of Health issued a press release to dispel "the confusion generated by an unfortunate and regrettable human error" which had led it about fifteen hours early to announce the end of this obligation.

The entire population, including children, must therefore continue to comply with the rules laid down by the ministry to fight the pandemic, including the obligation to wear a mask in closed public places.

The government continues to urge residents to get vaccinated. "The only way to protect ourselves and our loved ones from the pandemic and the current rise in the number of positive cases is to get vaccinated and adhere to preventive measures all the time," he stressed.

Afrique du sud: 50% de nouveaux cas de Covid-19 en plus en 24 heures

https://www.france24.com/fr/info-en-continu/20220505-afrique-du-sud-50-de-nouveaux-cas-de-covid-19-en-plus-en-24-heures

Le nombre de nouveaux cas recensés de Covid-19 en Afrique du sud a augmenté de plus de 50% en 24 heures, selon des chiffres officiels publiés jeudi, une nouvelle vague portée notamment par deux nouveaux…

**sharon sanders** · May 7, 2022, 09:23 AM

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**Emily** · May 22, 2022, 01:57 AM

Bulls and bears...just like the stock market.

Excellent news: SA's fifth wave of COVID has officially PEAKED!

https://www.thesouthafrican.com/news/breaking-latest-omicron-fifth-wave-peaked-data-south-africa-thursday-19-may/

All the important COVID-19 figures indicate that the fifth wave of the virus has peaked - so where does that leave South Africa now?

Excellent news: SA’s fifth wave of COVID has officially PEAKED!
All the important COVID-19 figures indicate that the fifth wave of the virus has peaked – so where does that leave South Africa now?
by Tom Head
19-05-2022 10:54

Cigars and champagne all round, then? Leading experts now state that the fifth wave of COVID infections in South Africa is on the turn, after new cases peaked and began declining in the past week.
Fifth wave has peaked in South Africa

The fifth wave was unique, in the sense that it was driven by sub-variants of an existing mutation. Previously, each new wave has been fuelled by a completely new variant – but Omicron has been something of a game-changer.

First discovered in November 2021, this particular COVID-19 strain appears to lead to more favourable outcomes. Healthcare systems have not been overwhelmed in the two Omicron-driven waves, thanks largely to high levels of population immunity in South Africa.
How bad was the fifth wave of COVID-19 in SA? Not very…

That’s why experts are relatively bullish about the latest figures out of Mzansi...

**Pathfinder** · June 23, 2022, 11:03 AM

STATEMENT BY MINISTER OF HEALTH DR JOE PHAAHLA ON THE REPEAL OF REGULATIONS ON NOTIFIABLE MEDICAL CONDITIONS DEALING WITH THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC AND ON MONKEY-POX

Thursday, June 2022

Programme Director,
Minister in the Presidency Mondli Gungubele
Provincial MECs present,
Director-General, Dr S Buthelezi,
Chairpersons of Ministerial Advisory Committees,
Health Management Team
Members of the Media

Today is a very historic day as we have reached a turning point since the outbreak of Covid-19 in the world and in the country. We recall that our first case was confirmed on 5 March 2020 in Pietermaritzburg from a South African who had travelled to Europe.

The President of the Republic, President Cyril Ramaphosa constituted the National Coronvirus Command Council and following its meeting he announced on 16 March 2020 that a Nationwide lockdown would start on midnight of 19 March 2020 with a strict stay at home unless you had permission to undertake essential services. Since then four full waves of the pandemic have ensued with the first 3 waves causing devastation with loss of lives across all sectors of society including health workers.

Disruptions of social and economic life have been huge most painful being families unable to visit loved ones who were seriously ill in hospital and for those who passed away, being buried under strict conditions. On the economic side, major losses of jobs and closure of several business especially SMME’S but even big hotels, airlines etc.
To delay the spread and allow health facilities to prepare capacity, even as the strict lockdown was lifted a risk adjusted strategy was used to reduce the spread of the virus.

In February 2021 we started vaccination under the Sisonke program led by the MRC starting with health workers and following with Education. In May 2021 when we started with the high risk age group of 60+ and progressively rolled out vaccination until we could open for 12-17 years old in November 2021.

We want to take this opportunity on behalf of all government to thank South Africans for their support and cooperation over the last 2 years and 3 months. While there was a lot of common ground and agreement even across political lives early in the pandemic when we all thought it would be short and over within a few months, the longer it took more fatigue and disagreements on strategy started to surface. We appreciate the fact that not withstanding the disagreements even leading to threats or even actual court actions the mainframe of our collective action remained until today. We thank South Africans for resilience in internalizing various measures of prevention and mitigation against the virus some of which will help us in dealing with some older respiratory diseases such as influenza and TB but also future respiratory epidemics.

We thank the collective leadership of our country across all sectors such as faith- based, civil society, traditional, business, academia, youth, women etc for rising to the occasion. Even though we did not realise our goal of vaccinating at least 70% of the adult population, we take solace in that as on 22 June 36,700m vaccine doses have been administered to 20.09m adults and 1,9 children of 12-17 year old giving a total average of 50.48% with at least one dose. We applaud the big turnout of the 60+ age group who are at risk with a 70,5% turnout and the next high risk of 50-59 years with a 66,17% turnout.

We believe that the big turnout of the 50+ age group contributed hugely to the reduced severity hospitalization and mortality witnessed in the fourth wave and persistent up to today.

We also want to recognize the best perfoming province in the vaccination program, the Free State for being the only province which has reached 60% of coverage of their adult population at 60.15%. They started slow but soon picked up pace towards the end of 2021 and never looked back.

Just behind them in the mid-band are Western Cape at 57.37%, Limpopo 57%, Eastern Cape 54.53% and N. Cape at 51.45%. Gauteng has the highest is absolute numbers at 5.4m individuals vaccinated but low in percentage at 47.8% due to a huge population size together with KZN , N-West and Mpumalanga have reached a coverage of below 50%

The Omicron variant driving the forth wave with its rapid spread affecting the highest number of people at a very short time led to increased natural immunity.

In March this year when the impact of the 4th started waning, government took the decision to exit the Disaster Management Act as an instrument to limit the impact of Covid-19. At the same time the Department of Health published Amendments to the 2017 Health Regulations on the Surveillance and Control of Notifiable Medical Conditions.

On the 5th of May, we published a limited set of Regulations to provide a framework for mitigating against a spike in Covid-19 infectionsdriven by subvariant B.4 and B.5 of the Omicron variant. During late April and most of May there was a significant peak in daily infections across the country starting to drive increased admissions to hospitals and daily deaths reported. Daily infections rose from as low as 250 cases per day in early April to just under 8000 on 15 May 2022 with positivity rate reaching 22% on 1st May and 20% on 15 May.

By mid-June the situation had taken to a very positive direction with:

Decline in daily cases
Decline in hospitalization
Decline in positivity rate
Decline in reproductive number
And decline in reported deaths

Having monitored the positive direction for more than three weeks we came to the conclusion that the peak infection which we concluded was a limited 5th wave driven by subvariants and not a new variant of concern was dissipating and thar there was no more any eminent risk.

It is on this basis that we approached the NCCC and the National Health Council which is made up of all Health MECs with a proposal that the limited regulations which dealt with:
(a) Wearing of masks indoors
(b) Limitations of gatherings
(c) Vaccination proof or PCR negative tests at Ports of Entry, – should all be lifted

We are pleased that out proposal received full support including by the Presidential Coordinating Council and Cabinet yesterday.

As a results of this, I signed a note in the Government Gazette last night releasing all the remaining health regulations.

We thank the leadership and guidance of President Ramaphosa, the National Cabinet, Premiers, and MECs, Mayors and Councilors and the officials across all of government.
We thank leaders of Civil Society, Faith-Based Institutions, Business, Labour and Traditional Authorities for their support and assistance.
We thank all Ministerial Advisory Committees for their self-less guidance without any claim of reward.
We just need to end with caution that the Covid-19 virus is not yet gone, it is still in our midst, we are just stronger that before especially with vaccination and we urge those not yet vaccinated to come forward and those due for boosters to also come forward.

The vaccination program will remain and is now being integrated into normal health services.
We urge all leaders of society and organizers of events to work with out health workers to promote healthy lifestyle and know your status, which is – Blood Pressure, Blood sugar, Cancer, HIV, Covid, etc.

...

STATEMENT BY MINISTER OF HEALTH DR JOE PHAAHLA ON THE REPEAL OF REGULATIONS ON NOTIFIABLE MEDICAL CONDITIONS DEALING WITH THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC AND ON MONKEY-POX

https://sacoronavirus.co.za/2022/06/23/statement-by-minister-of-health-dr-joe-phaahla-on-the-repeal-of-regulations-on-notifiable-medical-conditions-dealing-with-the-covid-19-pandemic-and-on-monkey-pox/

STATEMENT BY MINISTER OF HEALTH DR JOE PHAAHLA ON THE REPEAL OF REGULATIONS ON NOTIFIABLE MEDICAL CONDITIONS DEALING WITH THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC AND ON MONKEY-POX Thursday, June 2022 Programme Director, Minister in the Presidency Mondli Gungubele Provincial MECs present, Director-General, Dr S Buthelezi, Chairpersons of Ministerial Advisory Committees, Health Management Team Members of the Media Today is a very historic day as we have

Announcement

South Africa's Covid 19 cases rise again - Fifth wave ended, health regulations lifted

South Africa's Covid 19 cases rise again - Fifth wave ended, health regulations lifted

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