Durban - Parents have been urged to vaccinate their children against Covid-19. This comes after a remarkable number of children below 14 were among new cases that have been registered in the province in the past week.
This was according to Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane, who on Tuesday briefed media on the Covid-19 status quo, the character of KZN’s fourth wave, and the rising vaccination numbers.
She said in terms of deaths, the province had not seen a high number, but in the few that they have recorded, all age groups are affected from 4 months upwards. Simelane urged parents to vaccinate children who are between the ages of 12 and 17.
KZN has overtaken Gauteng as the province with the highest Covid-19 infection rate.
The MEC said that the increase in new infections is not entirely surprising because KZN is the second-most populous province in the country after Gauteng. The province is also a very popular tourist destination.
Although the dominant Omicron virus is highly infectious, it is not as lethal as the other variants that preceded it.
Simelane was concerned about emerging scientific reports to the effect that this variant causes more severe illness among younger age groups compared to other variants in South Africa previously.
She said the rise in the rate of infections comes at a time when the province is officially at the peak of the festive holiday season, with many visitors.
New infections recorded were Monday 2 496, Sunday 4 135, Saturday 4 202 and Friday, a staggering 5 134.
On Thursday, December 16, the official start of the peak holiday season KZN had 5 821 new cases. This was down from 5 924, recorded on Wednesday. In seven days, 42 people have died from Covid-19. In KZN, 14 868 people have died since the start of the pandemic.
She said Gauteng had seen a decline in the rate of infections.
“Two days ago, we did overtake Gauteng and became the province with the highest rate of infections.”
Simelane said the number of daily admissions continued to increase remarkably in both the public and private sectors, which was concerning.
The province has 1 933 patients admitted in both private and public hospitals. This is made up of 574 or 29% of patients in private hospitals and 1 359 or 71% in public hospitals.
Of those admitted, 90 patients (5%) required intensive care services.
Only private hospitals had patients admitted in ICU (67%) and public (33%) facilities.
Simelane said fewer people have been coming forward to get vaccinated, dropping numbers in recent weeks by 50%. She said the province still has 4 484 million people to vaccinate.
The 12-17 and 18-34 age groups registered the lowest rates of vaccinations.
“At some point, as a society, we must choose whether we want to believe scientists who have studied what they’re talking about or scientists from the street. From a racial perspective, black Africans have not been coming forward in large enough numbers. We are intensifying our vaccination efforts in townships and rural areas.”
Simelane urged people to turn their backs on the many myths and false information that has been spread about Covid-19 vaccines.
“With the Omicron variant, we are seeing an increasing number of people testing positive who did not have symptoms at all. This once again underscores the need for us to behave in a responsible manner.”
Daily News