IOL reports that a University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) professor says vaccine efficiency and herd immunity are two key reasons there won’t be as many deaths in the fifth wave of Covid-19.
SA is now in a fifth wave with a 20% positivity rate having been reported. The Department of Health indicated that more than 5,096 new cases had been recorded on Tuesday, with 41 deaths in the preceding 48 hours. But Head of Public Health Medicine at UKZN, Professor Saloshni Naidoo, said that while there would be many infections, most of those cases would be mild and moderate. “We are not seeing the pressure for hospitals. While there are admissions and people are in ICU, hospitals are not under pressure like in the previous waves.” Naidoo pointed out this was largely due to the vaccines working. “That is the message that needs to get across, is that vaccines work, and people need to get vaccinated,” Naidoo said, adding that the deaths being reported were mostly in the elderly and those with comorbidities. SA has fully vaccinated only 45% of its 39.7 million adult population. Naidoo was uncertain when the fifth wave would end. “We are currently also in winter, so we will plateau before anything changes,” she noted.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Jolene Marriah-Maharaj at IOL
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