JOHANNESBURG (AP) – South Africa’s normally cheerful and lively Christmas celebrations have been mitigated by the increase in new cases and deaths caused by the COVID-19 variant in the country.
A record number of 14,305 new cases have been confirmed in the past 24 hours, and with no sign that South Africa has reached its peak, threatening the country’s health systems, experts said.
South Africa has a cumulative total of 968,563 confirmed cases, including 25,983 deaths, by far the most cases across Africa. The 54 countries in Africa, representing 1.3 billion people, together reported more than 2.59 million cases, including more than 61,000 deaths, according to figures released Friday by the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
South Africa’s 7-day average of new daily cases has more than doubled in the past two weeks, from 8.65 new cases per 100,000 people on December 10 to 18.25 new cases per 100,000 people on December 24.
The South African variant, 501.V2, is more infectious than the original COVID-19 virus and is dominant in the country.
To combat the resurgence of the disease, South Africa has imposed measures, including the closure of many large public beaches, requiring masks in public areas, restricting alcohol sales to four days a week and forcing an overnight curfew from 11 pm to 7 pm 4am. However, the acceleration The rate at which the disease is spreading is leading experts to demand stricter measures.
“We need to think about additional restrictions, so that it is clear to people how serious the current situation is,” infectious disease specialist Dr. Richard Lessells told the Associated Press. “Because many hospitals in many parts of the country are already overloaded.”
Minister of Health Zweli Mkhize, in a christmas message to The country on Friday urged all South Africans to take preventive measures to slow the spread of the virus. Mkhize also issued a message on Christmas Eve that he rejected a suggestion by the British health minister that the South Africa variant had contributed to the Great Britain variant.
Mkhize said the statements by Britain’s Secretary of Health, Matt Hancock, created a perception that the variant in South Africa was an important factor in the second wave in the UK
“This is not correct. There is evidence that the UK variant developed before the South Africa variant,” said Mkhize.
There is no evidence to suggest that the South African variant is more transmissible, causes more serious illness or increased mortality than the British variant or any that has been sequenced in the world, said Mkhize.
He also said he was against a travel ban.
“It is a widely shared view of the scientific community that, given the current circumstantial evidence, the risks of travel bans can outweigh the benefits and that it is possible to contain variants while supporting international travel,” he said.
“Banning travel between the UK and South Africa is an unfortunate decision,” said Mkhize in his statement. “There is no evidence that the South African variant is more pathogenic than the UK variant to require this step.”
Mkhize noted that South Africa is part of a group of “countries that are leading in the field of genomic surveillance: Australia, Denmark, the Netherlands, South Africa and the United Kingdom”.
Leading genomic research in South Africa is Professor Tulio de Oliveira, who leads a team of scientists studying the genomic sequencing of the new variant.
“I’m going to spend Christmas in my laboratory,” said Oliveira to the AP. “We will be working throughout the holiday season on this survey.”
Other African countries are also struggling with the resurgence of the disease.
Nigeria has also reported a new variant of the virus and is fighting the resurgence of the disease. The country registered more than 81,200 cumulative cases on Friday. Nigeria’s 7-day continuous average of new daily cases increased in the last two weeks from 0.21 new cases per 100,000 people on December 10 to 0.40 new cases per 100,000 people on December 24.