Virus is not done with us, warns Karim

PROFESSOR Salim Abdool Karim has warned of more strife related to the pandemic despite the increase in the number of people being vaccinated.

“If I was a betting man, I would bet there are more variants. This virus is not done with us. We might be done with the virus, but it’s not done with us,” said Karim, a KwaZulu-Natal epidemiologist and infectious diseases specialist.

The former chairperson of the ministerial advisory committee on Covid19,

who stepped down in March this year, said finding solutions to address the virus was crucial since “there’s more coming”.

Almost 14 million of the vaccine doses have been administered with 6.75 million of the population, amounting to almost 12%, fully vaccinated.

The virus has claimed the lives of almost 5 million people around the world, underscoring the need for solutions to tackle the scourge, not just attempting to find a cure, said Karim.

He said the focus ought to be on how to move forward.

“If you keep worrying about all the problems behind, you won’t make progress. You have to look forward, you have to be forward or solution-orientated, you have to find the best way forward and try to make the best of a bad situation,” he said.

Globally, the virus has affected some 218 million people. In South Africa 83 343 people have died out of 2.79 million cases since March 2020 when the pandemic broke in the country. The statistics for Africa show more than 7 million cases with 180 000 deaths.

Dr Thierno Balde, the deputy incident manager for the World Health Organization (WHO) Africa based in Brazzaville, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, said in a call that Africa may not reach its target of vaccination for 10% of the most vulnerable on the continent by the end of September.

But he said the consequences may be seen less important than elsewhere since Africa has a smaller fraction of deaths than in Europe, America and Asia.

According to the WHO, 42 of Africa’s

54 nations, nearly 80%, will not reach the goal if the current pace of vaccine deliveries and vaccinations is maintained.

At the current pace, three more African countries are set to meet the target. Two more could meet it if they speed up vaccinations.

While the health systems in Africa have been found wanting, it has not come under the same pressure as in other regions.

Public health issues are always accompanied by political dimensions, said Balde.

But from an African perspective, governments have performed admirably in managing the pandemic, encouraging sanitation and wearing of masks, and now focusing on vaccination.

Given the low rate of vaccination in Africa, Balde said additional waves cannot be ruled out.

Hence, he advised of the need to grab the window of opportunity to ensure people are not distracted by any noise (related to the origins of the virus) but be better prepared for what may come.

In a statement following the September 2 Cabinet meeting, the South African government said it noted the decline in new infections, as well as hospital admissions and reported death cases.

But there was an increase in infection reproduction rates. The Department of Health assured Cabinet that more work is being done to understand and contain the reported school cluster outbreaks, particularly in the Eastern Cape.