Covid-19 patients show far less severe symptoms amid Omicron discovery – Netcare
“Having personally seen many of our patients across our Gauteng hospitals, their symptoms are far milder than anything we experienced during the first three waves,” says Netcare CEO Dr Richard Friedland.
Most people admitted at some of Gauteng private hospitals in the early fourth coronavirus high resurgence have shown less severe symptoms amid the discovery of new variant Omicron, says the CEO of private hospital group Netcare, Dr Richard Friedland in a media statement on Wednesday.
“Approximately 90% of Covid-19 patients currently in our hospitals require no form of oxygen therapy and are considered incidental cases. “While we fully recognise that it is still early days, if this trend continues, it would appear that with a few exceptions of those requiring tertiary care, the fourth wave can be adequately treated at a primary care level.”
ALSO READ: Gauteng EMS obtains 220 new ambulances for festive season
Dr Friedland said that 85% of 800 Covid-19 positive patients that were admitted since November 15, were unvaccinated. Furthermore, Netcare reported seven deaths over this period in this group of patients.
The hospital noted that four of these were Covid-19 related deaths. The ages of these four patients ranged from 58-91 years of age and reported to have had significant comorbidities. Of these patients, three were not vaccinated.
“In terms of age distribution, Covid-19 patients admitted since November 15 are on average younger than those seen during the first three waves with over 71% being below 50 years of age, with an average age of 38.5 years,” Friedland said.
Friedland said in the early stages of the fourth wave there were relatively low admissions at the private hospitals compared to the three previous waves. “During the first three waves, when the overall community positivity rate breached 26% across South Africa, we were inundated with Covid-19 admissions to hospital.
“Within Netcare we had over 2 000 Covid-19 patients in hospitals during the first wave, over 2 250 patients in hospital during the second wave and over 3 000 patients in hospital during the third wave. At present the 337 patients represent a fraction compared to previous waves.”
People that tested positive for Covid-19 presented with mild to moderate flu-like symptoms, including a blocked or runny nose, headache and a scratchy or sore throat.
“We cannot emphasise strongly enough the need for vaccination and all non-pharmaceutical precautions – particularly the wearing of masks, which has proven to be extremely effective in preventing transmission – to be diligently followed, as every person has a responsibility to help flatten this anticipated new curve to avoid contracting and passing on the virus.”
According to the Gauteng Department of Health as of Tuesday 1 805 people were hospitalised in public (919) and private (886) facilities.
Meanwhile Tshwane recorded another notable week-on-week increase in active Covid-19 to 20 425 this week. Earlier this month the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) reported that the slight increase in coronavirus hospital admissions in Tshwane consisted mainly of children under ages of two, and 87% of hospitalisations were unvaccinated individuals.
NICD’s Dr Waasila Jassat said although the data was still incomplete, early analysis showed that the slight increase of admissions in Tshwane hospitals over the past two weeks consisted of 13% vaccinated individuals and 87% of those were unvaccinated.
“There are much higher risks of deaths among those unvaccinated,” she said.
Tshwane district hospital had the highest admissions followed by Steve Biko hospital, Jubilee and MedForum private hospital. Children between 0-four years accounted for 70% of admissions, and the most cases were for the age group under two years. Admitted people with severe diseases mostly affected those aged 60 and above.
Do you have more information about the story?
Please send us an email to editorial@rekord.co.za or phone us on 083 625 4114.
For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord’s websites: Rekord East
For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram
* Notice: Coronavirus reporting at Caxton Local Media aims to combat fake news
Dear reader, As your local news provider, we have the duty of keeping you factually informed on Covid-19 developments. As you may have noticed, mis- and disinformation (also known as “fake news”) is circulating online.
Caxton Local Media is determined to filter through the masses of information doing the rounds and to separate truth from untruth in order to keep you adequately informed.
Local newsrooms follow a strict pre-publication fact-checking protocol. A national task team has been established to assist in bringing you credible news reports on Covid-19.
Readers with any comments or queries may contact National Group Editor Irma Green (irma@caxton.co.za) or Legal Adviser Helene Eloff (helene@caxton.co.za).
