[ad_1]
Makhura addressed residents outside a local Methodist church and another group outside Atamelang Elementary School.
- The Gauteng government is preparing for a possible increase in Covid-19 infections related to annual Easter trips.
- Prime Minister David Makhura said there are still no restrictions on Easter travel, but called on people to continue to be mindful of protecting themselves and others.
- A small increase in cases has been detected in the province for the first time in eight weeks.
The Gauteng government is preparing for a possible increase in Covid-19 infections related to annual Easter trips in and out of the province.
At the same time, winter is approaching and not enough people have been vaccinated to protect everyone.
“After Easter, I tell you, we are going to have many more people who may be infected as a result of travel,” Gauteng Prime Minister David Makhura said Friday during a Covid-19 update.
READ | Covid-19: Western Cape Government ‘Extremely Concerned’ About Easter, Ramadan Gatherings May Cause Another Wave
He said that during Easter last year, people traveled, regardless of the restrictions in place at the time.
“It was part of the impact of Covid-19, it’s just the stress, we are human,” he said.
Part of the trip was within the province to attend functions.
He said it shouldn’t be necessary to re-impose travel restrictions, and had noticed at roadblocks in the province since January that most people were keenly aware of wearing their masks and staying safe.
He said the second wave in Gauteng was related to the return of people from the Rage festival in Durban, who mostly lived in the Tshwane region.
Makhura says that the second wave of Covid-19 in Gauteng was caused by people returning from the Rage festival in Durban, with the majority coming from the Tshwane area. He says that nobody knows what the third wave will be like, if as severe as the second or a new variant. (@itchybyte)
– Team News24 (@ TeamNews24) March 19, 2021
He cautioned that transportation nodes represented one of the biggest risks, as did being in crowded spaces.
Makhura said that people should not let their guard down due to a vaccination program that has started with health workers.
He noted that other countries had a higher vaccination rate than South Africa, but still had outbreaks leading to mass closures.
Dr Mary Kawonga, a member of the Premier’s advisory committee on Covid-19, said Gauteng came out slightly lighter than the coastal regions during the second wave of the virus, a party due to the imposition of Level 3 Blockade during the holidays of December.
READ | Lockdown: more alcoholic beverage sales hours, larger meetings allowed as SA moves to level 1
The model carried out by the SA Covid-19 Modeling Consortium showed that the first wave lasted 80 days and 201,664 cases and 3,354 deaths were recorded. In the post-wave valley there were 47,039 cases and 1,784 deaths. In the second wave of 50 days, there were 135,192 cases and 3,436 deaths in a sharp increase and decrease in a short period.
The province is considered in a “post-wave stage”, but the number of cases and deaths had not dropped to the level it had when the second wave began.
There is an average of 3.1 hospital admissions per 100,000 people in the last two weeks and the mortality rate averages 1.1 per 100,000 people.
On March 13, an increase in cases was detected, after an eight-week downward trend, but there have been no alarming increases.
Kawonga said that meetings, and even meetings in small homes while people are more relaxed, are a risk.
“I think Covid-19 still has business with people,” he said.
READ | Covid-19: Ramaphosa, Mkhize Receive Vaccine Injections
Kawonga said the impact could be less severe if people comply with “non-pharmaceutical interventions” such as wearing masks, washing hands and avoiding gatherings.
Professor Bruce Mellado said that at the moment Gauteng is in an equilibrium where the numbers have stopped falling, leaving the province highly exposed to a third wave.
He said that any trigger for a super spreader event could lead to a third wave.
The current hotspots in Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane do not pose a threat by themselves.
The province’s risk index is considered “below average”, but Sedibeng and West Rand remain areas of concern, with clear faster growth in cases in the Emfuleni sub-district of Sedibeng.
Meanwhile, 43,915 health workers had been vaccinated in Gauteng on Thursday night. Gauteng targets 215,101 health workers in this early vaccination phase.
[ad_2]
