Officials fear new Covid wave due to threat from variants

A third wave of Covid-19 infections will break and roll through the Eastern Cape if people don’t comply with the regulations.

This is the warning of special adviser to the provincial health department Dr Siva Pillay, who said people need to be aware that the regulations in place are trying to minimise the spread of new variants from other countries were starting to enter SA.

He said if urgent steps were not taken to step up prevention, the third wave would be catastrophic.

Health minister Zweli Mkhize told parliament his department would need to spend R9bn fighting Covid-19 in the 2021/22 financial year. He said most of his department’s service delivery projects have had to be pushed back to reprioritise resources in the fight against the virus.

According to national health department statistics on Thursday, the Eastern Cape had 196,387 confirmed cases and 184,504 recoveries. The death toll stood at 11,612, with a national recovery rate of 95%.

Pillay, a former health department superintendent-general who is assisting in the joint operations centres for Sarah Baartman district and Nelson Mandela Bay metro, told the Dispatch the low infection numbers could rise if there was no restriction on movement to control the spread of the new mutations.

Provincial health spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said they were still seeing low numbers of Covid-19 admissions at Frere and Cecilia Makiwane hospitals — there was no evidence of any upswing. But he warned that Covid-19 was still circulating and “the risk is there”. According to Kupelo, currently the province had 271 active Covid19 cases.

“We urge people to remain cautious and register for vaccination as soon as they qualify. People are urged to continue with the non-pharmaceutical interventions of mask-wearing, hand-cleaning and social distancing, which are key in preventing infections.”

Pillay said: “There is free movement of people, plus they are still allowing international travel. If we allow all of that, then we have to have high vigilance. We have to find a balance between the two — economic sustainability and lockdown. If we do not implement lockdown then it is important that people are highly vigilant.”

He said the Brazilian, UK and Indian variants were already in SA.

If they were not contained “we will definitely get the third wave”.

“If people are vigilant, maintain social distance, wear their masks and sanitise, plus avoid crowds, then we can control it. But if we don’t, it’s a problem,” said Pillay.

He said their surveillance teams across the province were on high alert as third waves of infections broke out in surrounding provinces.

“Gauteng and Free State are hitting the third wave already. In this province, we are lucky that Easter is over because usually it’s two to three weeks after Easter that you get that wave. The only wave we are going to get now is from the variant strains.”

Pillay said the provincial government was ramping up its vaccination programme. It hoped to vaccinate 80% of healthcare workers by May 25.