South Africans Worried About Stricter Lockdown as Gauteng Enters the Covid19 4th Wave on Friday

• Health experts say the Gauteng province will officially go into the fourth wave of Covid19 infections from 3 December
• Covid19 infections have been on the rise in other provinces across South Africa except in the Northern Cape
• An adviser of the Gauteng Department of Health says the Omnicron variant is the driver of the most infections because it spreads faster

JOHANNESBURG - The Gauteng province has been seeing the highest number of new Covid19 infections in the country and health experts say the province will enter into a fourth wave on Friday, 3 December.

Dr Michelle Groome of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) said this prediction is based on the modelling done by the department.

Groome says there has been a spike in infections across the country except for the Northern Cape provinces, which still has relatively low new daily infections, reports News24.

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Groome says the reproduction rate of the virus is concerning because one person is more likely to infect multiple people with Covid19.

With this new information about the fourth wave, the Minister of Health Joe Phaahla says the National Command Council will be meeting over the weekend to engage on the possibility of more lockdown restrictions.

Omicron spreading much faster than previous variants

Bruce Mellado, an adviser of the Gauteng Health Department says the Omicron variant is actually spreading faster rate than the Delta variant or any other strain since in the province previously, according to TimesLIVE.

Mellado says the speed at which the Omicron variant is spread is higher than any other variant seen in the whole country.

Mellado predicts that the fourth wave peak could be reached in mid-December and has cautioned that reaching the peak does not mean less risk of a resurgence.

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Here's what South Africans have to say about the fourth wave:

@mrlee_sa said:

"Whilst the country is put on lockdown what is the government doing to minimize the same scenarios????? Nothing, they just blame all to citizens instead mxm."

@KingDav84193923 said:

"Why these people are lying? When they write things like this, don't they know that we are not vaccinated and we know the truth? We are not sick and the form still mild even for unvaxxed people like us."

@Giles43235302 said:

"It’s a catch-up from the censored stats during the pre-election mass rallies. Now it looks worse than it is because they need it to in order to impose more restrictions on us. We’re being played by incompetent, ignorant, greedy idiots in government."

@PatrickNicholl3 said:

"So on Friday (today), the NICD will “KNOW” that this is the fourth wave. Or are they saying that because of the increased reported cases it SEEMS that we may have entered into another spike in infections?"

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@ErasmusTrix said:

"Oh the government will have their Christmas parties for sure. Because they know all is lies!!"

Covid19: Western Cape numbers higher than what was predicted

Briefly News previously reported that the Western Cape province has been seeing an increase in Covid19 infections in recent weeks and there is a great concern.

The Western Cape's Department of Health chief, Dr Keith Cloete, states that week-to-week statistics reveals that the region has actually entered a resurgence.

The province is experiencing 11 hospital admissions per day and while the numbers are relatively low at the moment, Cloete says the steep increase is worrying, according to News24.

Source: Briefly News