Durban - AN investigation by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) into the Rage Festival revealed Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal recorded the highest number of cases emanating from the festival.
This was after two Rage attendees had tested positive for Covid-19 before the festival and still attended the event.
Rage had taken place from November 28 to December 4, 2020 at different venues.
The NICD conducted an investigation to ascertain the existence of a Covid-19 cluster related to attendance at Rage and to provide epidemiological characteristics of the cluster after a Hillcrest clinician alerted them to a number of Covid-19 cases among young people who had attended the event in Ballito.
In their January Communicable Diseases Communiqué, the NICD said of the 2 253 Rage attendees, 848 (37.6%) laboratory-confirmed Covid-19 cases were identified, of which 846 (99.8%) were revellers and two were crew (0.2%). The ages ranged from 16 to 58 years. The 15-19 age group accounted for 802 of the cases. Gender was known for 802 cases, of which 425 (53.0%) were males.
“Most cases were from Gauteng Province (66.2%, 561/848), followed by KwaZulu-Natal (30.0%, 254/848) Province,” the NICD said.
The institute said an epidemiological curve showed a rapid increase in cases from December 3, 2020, with a peak observed on December 7, followed by a gradual decline from December 9.
“The investigation revealed that two of the Rage attendees had positive Sars-CoV-2 results before the Rage but still proceeded to attend the event,” the NICD said.
They also said response to the investigation questionnaire was received from 19 of the 1 814 attendees, with only 13 giving consent to participate in the study and completing the questionnaire while 1 795 (99%) did not respond.
A number of revellers had reported to have attended other non-Rage-related events and parties, while other revellers attended privately organised parties, among others.
“Although wearing of masks was mandatory at Rage with hand sanitisers available, social distancing and mask wearing was compromised in most gatherings that took place before the Rage, and also masks were not worn all the time during the Rage. Factors such as mass gathering without using appropriate personal protective equipment, crowded spaces, poor hygiene and ventilation, and increased social inhibition due to alcohol consumption, may have produced a conducive environment for transmission of Sars-CoV-2 during these gatherings,” the NICD said.
The NICD did indicate that they faced limitations such as the poor response rate; lack of secondary attack rate data due to contact tracing activities being conducted at the provincial and districts levels and the information not available to the NICD investigation team; and the lack of clinical information for all identified cases limited the analysis.
The NICD was asked if the 561 cases from Gauteng and 254 cases from KZN played a role in driving the Covid-19 numbers and the second wave, but they had not commented at the time of publication.
On Monday, Rage Festival organisers said: “We have supported the NICD in every way possible from the outset and we have no further comment on the matter.”
Daily News