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JOHANNESBURG – Localized coronavirus outbreaks in parts of South Africa have raised fears that the country may see a resurgence in cases aggravated by gatherings during the upcoming holiday season.
Officials in the country hardest hit by the virus in Africa are struggling to contain infections after an outbreak was reported in the impoverished Eastern Cape Province and adjacent Western Cape Province last month.
The national number of new daily cases rose to more than 3,000 last week, up 50 percent from an average of 2,000 in early November.
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More than half of the increase is due to infections in the Eastern Cape and about 25 percent to cases in the Western Cape.
“(The) small cluster outbreaks that we are seeing … are transitory,” Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said during an emergency trip to the Eastern Cape last week.
“You have to do something,” he emphasized.
South Africa’s coronavirus transmission rate dropped significantly after infections peaked in July, with fewer than three daily cases detected per 100,000 people between late August and early November.
– Hospitals ‘overwhelmed’ –
“We are not in a second wave, but in these two provinces … we are in the midst of a resurgence,” said the government’s senior COVID-19 adviser, Salim Abdool Karim.
If the new outbreaks are not contained, he warned, it would be “only a matter of time” before the rebound hits the entire country.
Port Elizabeth hospitals are already struggling, although local government officials insist they are.
Doctors still recovering from the first wave have asked the international medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) to help them in three main public facilities.
“In fact, hospitals are overwhelmed with much larger numbers of patients … some say even more than in July,” said MSF doctor Colin Pfaff, the project’s medical response coordinator in the province.
“Facilities are struggling with understaffing,” he added, blaming “chronic deficiencies” and coronavirus infections among healthcare workers.
Private facilities are feeling the rush, too.
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“Our hospitals in the Eastern Cape are incredibly full right now,” Richard Friedland, director of South Africa’s leading private healthcare provider Netcare, told AFP.
More beds are being added, “so we still have the capacity to handle cases,” he added.
While the provincial government insists that hospitals are not “full” or “overflowing”, the national doctors association this week accused the Health Ministry of not providing adequate support to “overworked” staff.
In the Western Cape, authorities are considering specific restrictions.
“We must first do everything possible, through our individual and collective action to ensure that the resurgence is reversed,” said Western Cape Prime Minister Alan Winde.
– Vaccine outlook –
The coronavirus has infected more than 792,000 people in South Africa and killed more than 21,600 despite months of strict movement restrictions.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has ruled out a second lockdown for now.
The first national shutdown earlier this year severely affected Africa’s most industrialized economy, putting at least 2.2 million out of work.
Nationally, there is pressure to control new infections before the end of the year holidays, when millions of people cross the provinces to spend Christmas with family and friends.
There is also hope for a coronavirus vaccine after several recent major breakthroughs.
“The evidence that an effective coronavirus vaccine is possible … brings new hope,” Ramaphosa said in a recent speech.
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South Africa is currently testing three candidate vaccines and experts hope to begin immunization in mid-2021.
“Ideally we would like to vaccinate 70-80 percent of the population, but that’s not going to happen anytime soon,” said vaccinologist Shabir Madhi, who is leading two of the South African trials, citing logistical and cultural challenges.
But even a target of around 30-40 percent of the adult population “would help us a lot,” he added.
South Africa hopes to secure its first doses through the global COVAX Covid-19 vaccine distribution scheme.
Finance Minister Tito Mboweni also set aside R500 million for immunization and promised to raise at least another R5 billion.
Meanwhile, South Africa-based Aspen Pharmacare has signed an agreement with Johnson & Johnson to produce its candidate vaccine in the country.
Local biopharmaceutical company Biovac has also contracted with international vaccine manufacturers for patent transfers.
