BL Premium reports that SA scientists are closely monitoring a rapid rise in new coronavirus infections, which have more than doubled in the past week, but say it is too soon to tell whether there will be a similar upswing in hospital admissions.

“At this point there are no warning bells about severity. But the big caveat is it is still early days. There is a high level of uncertainty,” said University of KwaZulu-Natal epidemiologist Salim Abdool Karim, who previously had been the government’s top coronavirus adviser. The sharp rise in new cases could have been triggered by increased social interaction over Easter, Passover and Ramadan, which fell simultaneously this year, as much as the emergence of the new Omicron lineages BA.4 and BA.5. Whether the increase was the start of a rapid fifth wave of coronavirus infections would likely be clear in about a week’s time, Karim indicated. The national seven-day moving average of new recorded cases had by Sunday risen to 3,097, a week-on-week increase of 137%, according to CSIR senior researcher Ridhwaan Suliman. The lion’s share of the new cases have been recorded in Gauteng, where the seven-day moving average of new cases rose 135% week on week to 1,542, he noted.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Tamar Kahn at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)

Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page