No new Covid-19 variant detected in SA, yet
Both the presidency and health department have dispelled reports that the Lambda variant of Covid-19 has been detected in South Africa.
No new variant of the deadly Covid-19 virus has been detected in South Africa thus far, the presidency said earlier this week.
This as the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) met to receive updates on the management of the current third wave in the country on Wednesday.
“The experts provided clarity that the Lambda variant is not yet detected in South Africa and that currently all precautions must be taken into consideration to ensure readiness for any eventuality of the variant being prevalent,” the acting presidency minister’s spokesperson Nonceba Mhlauli said.
In the meeting, the NCCC also said that more provinces had been experiencing the third wave of the deadly pandemic.
However, Gauteng remained the epicentre thereof.
Meanwhile, acting presidency minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said, based from discussions in the command council, scaling up efforts to vaccinate the population were crucial.
“But the biggest weapon in our arsenal to fight this pandemic remains strict adherence to washing and sanitising of hands, wearing a face mask, maintaining social distance and ensuring proper ventilation remain essential,” she said.
Ntshavheni further encouraged South Africans to persevere and “not allow fatigue to get them to drop their guard in adhering to protocols”.
The meeting reportedly also saw the NCCC deliberating expanding the eligibility age for vaccination to another age cohort.
These deliberations proved fruitful when the government announced during a virtual briefing on Friday morning, that people aged between 35 and 49 would be eligible to register for vaccination from next week Thursday, July 15.
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The briefing was convened by acting health minister Mmamoloko Kubayi, deputy health minister Dr Joe Phaahla and a panel of experts to give an update on the government’s response to Covid-19 and the national vaccination roll-out programme.
The latest age cohort which was deemed eligible for the vaccine was expected to start receiving their vaccinations from Sunday, August 1.
In the briefing, Kubayi dispelled reports that the Lambda variant had been detected in the country.
“Contrary to false reports that you might have read, the Lambda variant has not been picked up yet by our scientists in the country,” she said.
She said that the variant had, however, begun to spread to South America and been detected in a total of 29 countries by the end of June 2021.
These countries particularly included Argentina, Chile and Ecuador.
“Now it has been found in more than 30 countries,” Kubayi said.
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