South Africa might be entering a fifth wave of coronavirus infections following a recent sustained increase in Covid-19 cases, Health Minister Joe Phaahla said on Friday.
Driving the rise to over 6,300 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday was the emergence of the omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants, the minister told journalists.
Phaahla said although hospitalisations were picking up, there was so far no dramatic change in admissions to intensive care units or deaths in the country’s hospitals.
The minister said at this stage health authorities had not been alerted to any new variant, other than changes to the dominant one circulating as Omicron.
Infectious disease specialist Richard Lessells told the same briefing that waning immunity from previous waves could be contributing to the earlier-than-expected resurgence in cases.
The country, which has recorded the most coronavirus cases and deaths in Africa, only exited the fourth wave of the virus around January – and had predicted a fifth wave could start in May or June during the southern hemisphere winter.
A sustained rise in infections over the past 14 days saw the country’s load reach 6,375 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, the National Institute of Communicable Diseases confirmed.
NM/jn/APA