Cape Town – With the kick-starting of economies and resumption of services disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, many countries are seeing a resurgence of infections.
South Africa Medical Research Council president Professor Glenda Gray said community transmissions will continue to take place because there is no vaccine.
“In Europe, a second wave occurred in the summer months because people started to become more mobile, didn’t use non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) and therefore exposed a lot more people as they moved about.”
Gray said South Africans are at risk of a second wave if community transmissions were not managed.
Western Cape had recorded 2 732 active cases of Covid-19, 108 813 confirmed cases in total and 101 961 recoveries as at 1pm yesterday.
This was stated in the daily Covid-19 pandemic update provided by Premier Alan Winde. The death toll number is 4 120. The number of tests conducted is at 518 961. At present, 621 people have been hospitalised with 121 patients in ICU or high care. There remains 2 117 confirmed cases unallocated with 2 073 recoveries.
The head of the Centre of HIV and STIs at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), Adrian Puren, said that globally “we have not seen the complete suppression of the virus following the peak but a continuous transmission, albeit at a lower level through the seasons”.
“We will likely see this in South Africa as we head into summer. The reasons for these resurgences, spikes, clusters are likely the result of how the risk-adjustment strategies are implemented and how the societies adapt to them.”
Winde said that although restrictions may have relaxed, attitudes towards the virus and protecting us through adopting the NPI should not.
Cape Argus