South Africa’s coronavirus infections are on the rise again, with the country reportedly entering another wave of the pandemic, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Senior Researcher, Dr Ridhwaan Suliman, has said.
According to Suliman on Thursday, this was an expected development.
“Promisingly, Covid-19 hospitalisations and deaths remain fairly flat,” he said on Twitter.
Data showed that the increases ranged from 0.1 cases per 100,000 people (6.6%) in Free State, to 3.4 cases per 100,000 people (64.4%) in KwaZulu-Natal during the week ending 12 November, the researcher said.
According to the statistics, the highest weekly incidence risk is among cases detected in patients aged 80 and above, while the lowest was in the five to nine-year-old age group.
In the latest National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) weekly report, KwaZulu-Natal province had the highest number of admissions in the past week (97 admissions out of 286 cases or 33.9%), followed by Gauteng (82 admissions out of 286 cases or 28.7%) and Western Cape (51 admissions out of 286 cases or 17.8%).
The North West province had the lowest number of admissions (five admissions out of 286 cases, or 1.7%), the NICD report said.
However, in the same week, there was a 40% decrease in the number of new hospital admissions compared to the previous week, it added.
NM/as/APA