Fin24 reports that banking group Absa expects a fifth wave of Covid-19 infections to emerge as soon as next month.
New daily Covid-19 infections in SA are currently below 1,000 a day, and there have been no new deaths recorded in the official tally in the past two days. The country is waiting for President Cyril Ramaphosa to announce new Covid-19 regulations as he has alluded to a possible end to the State of National Disaster, amid calls for mask regulations to be dropped outdoors and temperature checks to be scrapped. "We do anticipate a fifth wave. We think it will start as early as late next month," said Absa interim CEO Jason Quinn. Absa said it expected that waves of infection would continue, but social-distancing restrictions in each wave would likely become less prohibitive. The bank said Covid-19 claims in the fourth wave were better than its insurance business expected. So, it might be the case that the fifth wave could also be less severe than the third wave, which hit SA life insurers hard.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Londiwe Buthelezi at Fin24
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