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The province is currently dealing with 34,000 active cases and the peak would be much, much higher than that of the first wave earlier this year.
FILE: Medical swabs to detect coronavirus. Image: EWN.
CAPE TOWN – The Western Cape expects to reach its second peak of COVID-19 infections in the first week of the new year.
The province is currently dealing with 34,000 active cases and the peak will be much, much higher than that of the first wave earlier this year.
ALSO READ: COVID-19 Cases, CT Hospitalizations Exceeding First Wave – WC Health Dept
Health authorities have also been able to collect data on the new variant of the coronavirus, supporting the idea that it spreads much faster.
Coronavirus update
December 21, 2020As of 1 p.m. December 21, the Western Cape has 34,694 active COVID-19 infections with a total of 174,813 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 134,567 recoveries.
Statement: https://t.co/mm6wO8mRWv pic.twitter.com/TTcDmPN8ZX
Premier Alan Winde (@alanwinde) December 21, 2020
The second wave of COVID-19 has the Western Cape in its clutches and is much more powerful than the first.
Western Cape Health Chief Dr. Keith Cloete said Tuesday that all districts would reach a higher peak except Khayelitsha.
The Cape metro is currently about 17 days from the height of the second wave.
“We hope, according to the model, when applying what happened in Nelson Mandela Bay and what is happening in the Garden Route, we hope that in the metro the peak will be in the first week of January,” said Cloete.
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Cloete said analysis of data on the Cape Flats had confirmed that the new variant of the virus spread faster, and he believed that explained the runaway numbers experienced on the Garden Route and the rest of the Western Cape.
“The reason it spreads faster … is mutations, it binds more easily to the human cell. It means that smaller amounts of the virus are needed to become infected, ”he said.
The massive increase in new cases has put the province’s hospitals and health workers under extreme strain.
Cloete said they were in the process of expanding the hospital’s capacity.
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