Alert level 3 will go on as third wave refuses to decline, Joe Phaahla says
20 August 2021 - 10:45
byDave Chambers
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
Health minister Joe Phaahla. Picture: FREDDY MAVUNDA
Alert level 3 of the lockdown will continue, health minister Joe Phaahla said on Friday. Briefing the media about the Covid-19 pandemic, Phaahla said the national coronavirus command council and the cabinet had made the decision due to the third wave of the local outbreak remaining “stubbornly in our midst”.
The number of new infections had increased 18.2% over the past seven days, Phaahla said, with the resurgence being driven by the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape and the Northern Cape. Announcing the continuation of alert level 3, Phaahla said: “We remain hopeful that ... we can start to see a decisive flattening of the curve in the next two weeks.”
He said he was encouraged that hospital admissions over the past seven days had declined 5.4%.
On Thursday, the number of vaccination doses administered passed 10-million, and Phaahla said more than half of the key over-60 age group had received at least one dose.
“The total population fully vaccinated now stands at 4.62-million people. This is 12% of the adult population,” said Phaahla. “The total people with at least one jab of Pfizer is 8.8-million, 20% of the adult population.”
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
Alert level 3 will go on as third wave refuses to decline, Joe Phaahla says
Alert level 3 of the lockdown will continue, health minister Joe Phaahla said on Friday. Briefing the media about the Covid-19 pandemic, Phaahla said the national coronavirus command council and the cabinet had made the decision due to the third wave of the local outbreak remaining “stubbornly in our midst”.
The number of new infections had increased 18.2% over the past seven days, Phaahla said, with the resurgence being driven by the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape and the Northern Cape. Announcing the continuation of alert level 3, Phaahla said: “We remain hopeful that ... we can start to see a decisive flattening of the curve in the next two weeks.”
He said he was encouraged that hospital admissions over the past seven days had declined 5.4%.
On Thursday, the number of vaccination doses administered passed 10-million, and Phaahla said more than half of the key over-60 age group had received at least one dose.
“The total population fully vaccinated now stands at 4.62-million people. This is 12% of the adult population,” said Phaahla. “The total people with at least one jab of Pfizer is 8.8-million, 20% of the adult population.”
TimesLIVE
SA vaccination drive has lost momentum, says deputy minister
ANTHONY BUTLER: A new apartheid along the vaccination divide looms
Alarmed cabinet devises ways to bring vaccines to the people
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Most Read
Related Articles
B4SA urges all adults to get jabbed after vaccinations open for over-18s
CHARLES OKEHALAM: What Africa must do to help speed up global vaccinations
SARAH BUITENDACH: Is it appropriate to ask someone if they’ve been vaccinated?
Published by Arena Holdings and distributed with the Financial Mail on the last Thursday of every month except December and January.