Covid-19: Tshwane active infections drop to below 3 000
Despite detection of a new variant in all provinces, Tshwane infections continue to go down.
Tshwane’s weekly coronavirus infections continue to decrease despite the detection of a new variant.
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) continues to study the variant’s contagion and the efficacy of vaccines against this new variant C.1.2 lineage found in all provinces.
On Monday, health experts associated with the NICD said although the variant was first detected in May it had relatively low visibility in community infections with less than 3%.
During a press briefing NCID principal medical scientist Dr Jinal Bhiman said they were monitoring it to better understand its effects.
“What is of concern is that there were quite a few mutations that took place in the spike of the C.1.2 virus that has not happened in other variants. That is why we are monitoring this lineage.”
NICD researcher associate Professor Penny Moore said the Delta variant continued to dominate in the country.
“The new variant has some similar mutations (change in the protein spike or gene of the variant) to the other variants. We have some understanding on what the C.1.2 variant might behave like against the vaccines we have.”
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Although more studies needed to be done, Moore said based on the shared mutations of the new variant with others, they had confidence the vaccines would continue to protect against severe diseases and death.
Whether the new variant was more transmissible or not, senior medical scientist Dr Cathrine Scheepers said this was not yet determined but some mutations detected on the variant were linked to increased transmissibility.
NICD interim executive director Professor Adrian Puren said they would not recommend change to regulations due to the variant.
Meanwhile, Tshwane continued to record a significant week-on-week decrease in the number of active Covid-19 cases.
In most recent reports by Gauteng Health Department active cases were at 2 601 as of Monday.
Williams said the decrease was of over 1 000 cases compared to the previous week the number of active cases which stood at 3 735.
While cases continue to decrease he urged residents to remain vigilant and adhere to Covid-19 safety protocols, such as wearing masks and sanitising regularly.
“It is also important to note all adults from the age of 18 can now be vaccinated. This applies to South African citizens as well as documented foreign nationals in the country,” Williams said.
“I’d like to remind our residents that the city has 43 public vaccination sites spread across the seven regions of Tshwane. All our vaccination sites have competent staff who stand ready to offer professional and high-quality services.”
Daily confirmed infections over the past week:
– Monday, August 23: 136 new infections
– Tuesday, August 24: 300 new infections
-Wednesday, August 25: 415 new infections
– Thursday, August 26: 386 new infections
-Friday, August 27: 400 new infections
– Saturday, August 28: 247 new infections
– Sunday, August 29: 214 new infections
– Monday, August 30: 111 new infections
WATCH : NICD Press Conference _ COVID-19 Variant C.1.2_ 30 August 2021 – YouTube
A report on the new variant was conducted by the Network for Genomics Surveillance in South Africa (NGS-SA), which includes the NICD, University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), University of Cape Town (UCT) and Stellenbosch University (SUN).
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