So say medical experts in the country.

Daily infection rates are affected by several factors, including uneven testing and reporting delays. But figures from the last few days can still give little indication of whether the peak in infections has been reached.

After the country peaked at nearly 27,000 new cases last Thursday, they fell to around 15,424 on Tuesday. In Gauteng province, which is South Africa’s most populous with 16 million people, the decline started early and has continued to decline.

– Not too serious

– It was a short wave, and the good news was that it wasn’t too serious both in terms of hospitalizations and deaths, said Marta Nunes, senior researcher in the Department of Vaccines and Infectious Diseases at the University of the Witwatersrand.

This may be a good sign, but experts point out that it’s too early to draw conclusions. Last year, there was an increase in infection cases in several countries after the Christmas holiday.

In addition, there are several factors that can affect the numbers in South Africa. It’s summer in the country now, which means a lot of people stay outdoors.

Dominant variant

Omicron is now the dominant virus variant in several countries, including Denmark, Portugal and the UK, where the number of cases is shown to be doubling every two to three days. This also applies to South Africa, where this variant was first discovered. In Gauteng Province, an estimated 90 percent of coronavirus cases with the omicron variant have been reported since mid-November.

About 40 percent of all adults in South Africa have received two doses of the coronary vaccine. Most people who are hospitalized with coronavirus are not vaccinated.

(©NTB)