[ad_1]
Professor Salim Abdool Karim.
- South Africa is at continued high risk and the threat of another wave of infections, says Professor Salim Abdool Karim.
- Data shows countryThe five key indicators “are all heading in the same direction.”
- Abdool Karim believes that he is “at a stage where we are beyond these levels” of blockage.
South Africa is on track to reach the threshold of a country with low-level Covid-19 transmission, prominent epidemiologist and infectious disease specialist Professor Salim Abdool Karim said Tuesday.
But the country is not out of the woods yet.
“We have continued high risk and the threat of having another wave. I think that’s just part of the reality that we have to live with,” he said during a webinar on Covid-19 and how the Western Cape became the first. epicenter of Africa. , which was organized by ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability.
The data shows that the country’s five key indicators “were all heading in the same direction,” Abdool Karim said, adding:
The number of cases is going down. The proportion of positive tests is decreasing, admissions, deaths, excess deaths and oxygen use are decreasing. Every indicator we have is heading in the right direction.
The Lancet Covid-19 Commission classified countries with a threshold of one positive case per 100,000 as having a low level of transmission, he explained, while the WHO threshold stood at a positivity rate of 5%.
“One in 100,000 translates to less than 600 cases per day,” said Abdool Karim. “We are getting there. We are close to those thresholds.”
According to the most recent statistics released by Health Minister Zweli Mkhize, on Monday, South Africa has 650,749 confirmed cases, with 956 new cases identified.
EXPLANATOR | Lockdown level 1: everything we know so far and the restrictions that could disappear
Gauteng is home to the majority with 33.1%, followed by KwaZulu-Natal with 17.9% and the Western Cape with 16.7%.
Abdool Karim believed that South Africa was “at a stage where we are beyond these levels” of lockdown.
“We have to go ahead and say this is the new normal. We need to get on with our lives, get back to doing the things we do, as long as we continue with our prevention strategy: washing hands, wearing masks and social distancing.”
Restrictions
“We have to institute certain restrictions that we will have to live with in the long term. And those are restrictions that really prevent mass gatherings that lead to over-broadcast events, which we want to avoid, a situation where one person can infect many others. “.
“Very sadly,” said Abdool Karim, “SA is not out of the woods yet.
“When we look at the countries around us that have completed their first wave, about half of them have had a second wave.
“It is not a problem that we have to deal with as a sprint. It is a problem that we have to plan and implement like a marathon. We have to live with it, we have to deal with it for several months, if not years.”
