Tourists get off a sightseeing bus at a cable car station of Table Mountain in Cape Town, Western Cape Province, South Africa, on April 9, 2022. (Xinhua/Lyu Tianran)
South Africa's Health Minister Joe Phaahla on Friday said the number of new COVID-19 cases in the country had risen strongly in two weeks, but it would not be known for certain if the country entered the fifth case until next week.
JOHANNESBURG, April 30 (Xinhua) -- South Africa's Health Minister Joe Phaahla on Friday said the number of new COVID-19 cases in the country had risen strongly in two weeks, but it would not be known for certain if the country entered the fifth case until next week.
In just one week, the active cases had risen to almost 40,000. The number of deaths increased from 51 previous 7 days to 150 in week April 18-24, said Phaahla when briefing the media details on the rising COVID-19 numbers.
"The rise in daily infections took a sharper uptick as we got to the end of on the week ending Saturday, April 23rd, and has been sustained during the week starting on Monday April 25 reaching up to over 6,000 on Wednesday April 27th," he said.
There are two dominant sub-variants of Omicron, B.4 and B.5, which have some differences from the original B.1, but not enough to qualify as new variants of concern, according to the minister.
More than 85 percent of positive results have come from three provinces including Gauteng, Western Cape, and KwaZulu Natal.
A courier pays for fuel at a petrol station in Cape Town, legislative capital of South Africa, on March 2, 2022. (Xinhua/Lyu Tianran)
"The positivity rate remains very high," he added.
Despite scientists arguing that South Africa has entered the fifth wave as cases have been increasing, Phaahla said waiting for another week to confirm the wave was prudent.
"We decided to wait a bit long to observe for more than seven days to see if the upward trend is sustained and the answer is yes," he said.
Previously, mid-May had been projected as the time for the fifth wave.
The minister reminded the public to remain mindful of the serious risks posed by COVID-19 despite the lowering of regulations to curb the spread of the virus.
"COVID-19 remains a threat, we can't afford to drop all the prevention measures, It will put serious pressure on our healthcare system," he said.
Despite millions of vaccine doses being available, fewer than 50 percent of the South African population have received the vaccination. As the fifth wave approaches, the minister said the younger population between 18 and 35 years of age should be urged to get vaccinated.
"We've been witnessing a very low uptake of the vaccines, unfortunately, It's not the time to lower our guards," he said. ■
