Has Covid-19 run its course in Gauteng?

THE Covid-19 virus could be running out of people to infect in the Gauteng, the epicentre of the virus in South Africa, mainly because so many of its residents might have already had it.

In some areas of Gauteng, studies have shown that between 35% and 45% of residents were exposed to Covid-19.

This, believes Professor Shabir Madhi, the executive director of the Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics Research unit (Vida), could be the reason why the country is seeing a sudden decline in Covid-19 infections.

“So, once you get a high proportion of the population infected and together with the use of the non pharmaceutical intervention like the wearing of masks, and physical distancing etc, what happens is herd immunity kicks in,” explained Madhi.

“This where a large enough percentage of the population has now developed immunity against the virus. So the virus is no longer able to transmit efficiently between people.”

The fall in the infection rate over the last couple of weeks has prompted speculation that President Cyril Ramaphosa could move the lockdown to level one within a couple of days. On Wednesday night, Ramaphosa told members of the SA National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) in a virtual conversation to “watch this space” when asked about easing the lockdown.

South Africa’s decline in Covid19 infections goes against what other countries, are currently facing.

Many are fighting a second wave of the disease, and are enforcing harder lockdowns.

Professor Alex van den Heever, who holds the Chair of Social Security Systems Administration and Management Studies at Wits University explained this high immunity to the disease didn’t have to be wide spread to limit the national infection rate.

“So, in high risk areas, where people have had difficulty social distancing and have had to use taxi transport, those communities appear to have had a high prevalence,” says Van den Heever.

“So maybe these very localised but very important areas have allowed immunity to build up.”

Those working in communities fighting the disease have also with a sigh of relief seen this slow down in Covid-19 infections.