Health Minister Joe Phaahla has warned that South Africa would experience the fourth wave of the coronavirus pandemic starting in November.
“The third wave is dragging at a high level. And in the absence of a new variant, what this means is that, many of us are not observing the prescribed precautions to control it,” Phaahla said during a media briefing in Pretoria on Thursday evening.
According to the minister, “the risk of this was that, by the time the fourth wave comes, which is predicted to come in November, it would possibly be driven by a new variant.”
He added: “And it may find us still at the tail end of the third wave, which would mean that the health facilities and workers would not have had much rest.”
Phaahla also commended the youth for their enthusiastic response to the country’s vaccination campaign, which has seen registrations in large numbers for the 18-35 years age group which opened last Friday.
Last week saw more than 500,000 registering on the first day, with the youth vaccination figures remaining over 80,000 per day, Phaahla said.
“Exactly seven days ago, we opened up registrations and vaccinations for everybody over the age of 18,” the minister said.
“And the response of our young people has been overwhelming,” he added.
Meanwhile, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) has recorded 357 Covid-19 deaths on Thursday, bringing the death toll to 80,826 fatalities.
NM/jn/APA