Covid 19: Epidemiologist Says Get Vaccinated Before 4th Wave, Announces Frontline Workers Doccie Shot in SA
- An epidemiologist has emphasised on the importance of getting vaccinated before the coronavirus fourth wave begins
- Professor Salim Abdool Karim says its better to vaccinated when the fourth wave arrives in the comings months to prevent death risk
- Karim was speaking at a press conference for a South African-filmed documentary on the coronavirus being shot in Pretoria
PAY ATTENTION: Click “See First” under the “Following” tab to see Briefly News on your News Feed!
PRETORIA - Epidemiologist and infectious diseases specialist Professor Salim Abdool Karim says South Africans need to get vaccinated against the coronavirus before the Covid 19 fourth wave hits in few a months' time.
Being fully vaccinated, according to Karim, will put individuals in a better position during the upcoming fourth wave, which is expected to hit in November and December.
Source: Getty Images
He emphasised that vaccines play an important role in preventing serious illness, death and ICU care due to Covid 19.
"Vaccines have a very high efficacy in terms of preventing severe disease that requires ICU care and prevents deaths," said Karim.
Enjoy reading our stories? Download the BRIEFLY NEWS app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major South African news!
Karim was speaking at a press conference announcing the date for the premiere of a South African-filmed documentary focusing on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on health workers on Monday, reports News24.
The Covid 19 documentary, Zero to Zero, was filmed at the Zuid-Afrikaans Hospital, which is a non-profit hospital in Pretoria. It was shot over a period of 15 months and has been following how the hospital has been dealing with the pandemic since its first Covid patient last year in June, according to IOL.
The documentary was filmed by Professor Leonie Scholtz, a radiologist and part-time filmmaker, alongside Shem Compion and Christa Lategan.
Scholtz explains that the documentary was created because she realised that photographers would not be able to document the severity of the pandemic because of Covid 19 restrictions.
“Being a photographer myself, and also having access to the inner sanctum of the frontline, I felt obliged to document it,” said Scholtz.
Scholtz explains that filming the documentary posed difficulties to the team because of uncertainties of how the story would unfold because of the real situations of life and death they were faced with.
The documentary will premiere on MNet on 4 October at 8:30pm.
Mu: Covid 19 variant of interest being observed by SA experts as it plagues other nations
Briefly News previously reported that health officials within the country revealed that it would continue to look at a new variant of Covid 19 called Mu. The World Health Organization (WHO) has recently classified the B.1.621 from the Pango lineage.
The Mu is a variant of interest, according to reports. The National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD), on Monday, 6 September, confirmed that they were keeping an eye out for the new variant.
The Mu variant was first located in January earlier this year. It has since spread to Asia, America, South America as well as Europe. NICD's Dr Jinal Bhiman revealed that there had not yet been any confirmed cases of Mu in South Africa.
Bhiman stated that the variant is a Beta one and is significantly more resistant to immune response. It is suspected that this variant may be more transmissible.
Source: Briefly News
