‘Uptick in cases in WC’ ahead of fourth wave

THE Western Cape is in a Covid-19 infection resurgence in the context of the new Omicron variant, but the province is estimated to still be a few weeks away from a fourth wave.

That was the message from provincial head of Health Dr Keith Cloete yesterday during Premier Alan Winde’s digital news update on the situation and vaccine campaign.

“We have been in between waves for the last few weeks but we are now starting to see an early uptick in cases in the Western Cape. We are officially in a resurgence, but absolute case numbers remain low. This means there has been a steep increase in cases, which is concerning, but case numbers remain relatively low.

“We know we are in a resurgence because there has been an over 20% week-on-week percentage change in the seven-day moving average of new cases.”

Cloete said the province was now seeing clear increases in the number of daily new cases with an average 200 new diagnoses a day and the proportion positive, which is the percentage of all tests performed that emerge positive, has increased to an average of 8.2%.

He also said admissions across the province were showing signs of an early increase with 11 admissions a day.

On Wednesday Cloete told the legislature’s ad-hoc committee on Covid19 that there were on average 100 new daily diagnoses a day, the proportion positive was 5.1% and admissions stood at 10 admissions a day.

Winde said: “We have learnt a lot about Omicron but await further information. Let’s continue to remain calm but cautious and practise the behaviours we have learnt to stop the spread.

“I am concerned that the total number of unvaccinated persons in the province who are 18 years and older currently stands at 2 500 480 and strongly encourage those who have not yet done so to get vaccinated.”

Health MEC Nomafrench Mbombo said: “We we don’t want to repeat the events of last December when we saw 56 of our health workers die.”