DURBAN - ETHEKWINI is bearing the brunt of the surge in Covid-19 cases, with the district accounting for more than half of the cases recorded this past weekend.
In the province, 1 002 cases were recorded on Saturday and more than 500 of these cases were in the eThekwini district.
KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sihle Zikalala revealed this yesterday while delivering an update on the state of Covid-19 infections in the province.
He said cases in the province over the past few days had been increasing at an alarming rate and the increase was driven by the Omicron variant.
He warned that those who continued to reject vaccination placed themselves at greater risk of infections that were accompanied by more severe outcomes.
Zikalala spoke on the infections, rate of vaccinations and the province’s readiness to deal with the increasing number of Covid-19 cases.
He said on Saturday the province recorded 1 002 new cases and 550 were in eThekwini district, which means it is accounting for more than 54% of the total infection rate.
EThekwini is followed by uMgungundlovu, with 136 new infections and Amajuba with 75 new infections this weekend.
“It is with a deep sense of concern that we confirm that our province has now officially entered the fourth wave of Covid-19 infections.
“In the past three weeks, our province has observed a significant climb in the rate of infections on a daily basis.
The number of daily cases that have been registered in the past seven days has been rising at an alarming rate.
“In fact, it is twice the number received two weeks ago. Clearly a new wave of infections is fast rising and the Omicron variant is the driver behind this new wave of infections.”
He said three weeks ago, the province had a positivity rate of 0.7%; but as of yesterday, the positivity rate had jumped to 12.7%.
He said the province started recording more than 100 cases per day from November 26, while the average number of cases recorded daily rose from 47 to 362.
He said the incidence risk per 100 000 people had also increased, from three to 18 cases per 100 000 people in the past seven days. The increase in numbers contributed to an increase in the seven-day moving average.
“All of these developments indicate that we have now entered the fourth wave. The rate of hospitalisations has also increased, including patients who require ICU and ventilation. We can confirm that the vast majority of those patients who require treatment in ICU and ventilation are those who have not been vaccinated,” said Zikalala.
He said further analysis of the province’s trends showed that, while there was no significant increase in the number of deaths, those above the age of 60 had registered more deaths, while there had been a notable increase in the infection rate among those aged between 30 and 50.
The three leading comorbidities remained hypertension, diabetes and tuberculosis.
Zikalala said in line with the low vaccination rate and increasing infections, more people were ending up in hospital, some seriously ill.
He said as of December 4, the province had a total of 381 patients who have been admitted in both private (201, 53%) and public (180, 38%) hospitals. Of those admitted, 26 patients (7%) required intensive-care services.
Zikalala said he was extremely concerned about the low rate of vaccinations, with the total vaccination rate standing below 40%.
“With the advent of the highly infectious Omicron variant, we are pleading with citizens to get the jab, so that their bodies are able to fight the virus if it enters their body,” said Zikalala.
He said as of December 4, the province had administered 4.023 million vaccination doses to 2.645 million people, which accounts for 36% of the people in the province.
Out of these, 991 408 were single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccinations, which means these are fully vaccinated people, and 1.654 million were two-dose Pfizer vaccinations.
“We still have 369 000 people due for their second dose of the Pfizer vaccine,” he said.
Zikalala said the province’s hospital infrastructure had been prepared to cope with the surge in cases. The province had a total of 3 355 isolation beds dedicated for Covid-19; 1 533 beds reserved for people under investigation; and 117 ICU beds in public hospitals. The department will repurpose more beds if the need arises, he said.
Zikalala urged event organisers, as the province heads to the festive season, to be more careful when organising events in light of the increase in the number of cases. “We would like to urge event organisers to delay the staging of their events, or put very strict controls to prevent gatherings from turning into super-spreaders.”
THE MERCURY