Significant decline in Covid-19 cases - NICD

"This last resurgence was at a much lower level than we saw in previous waves," says Professor Cheryl Cohen, who is the head of the Centre for Respiratory Diseases at the NICD. 

"In fact, in all provinces, we see a reduction in cases now, except in the Northern Cape province, the cases are going up. I think because it was lagging behind."

Cohen says the infection rate in Gauteng is also much lower than a couple of weeks ago.

"Gauteng, which was the first affected in this resurgence, has been going down longer than the others. So some of the provinces just started later but essentially in most provinces we've now seen a reduction in cases week on week."

Cohen briefed the media on Wednesday on the resurgence of infections driven by the two Omicron sub-variants. 

She said the elderly face a significant risk of developing severe illness if they contract coronavirus. 

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"The highest number of cases are in the elderly, the over 80s then 40 to 59-year-old. And this is reflective of the fact that in this resurgence the people who are testing are mostly quite ill and you know we get the most severe disease in old age. So it probable reflecting testing patterns."

Over 5 000 new infections were confirmed in the past 24 hours. Forty-one more people died, bringing the pandemic death toll to 101 043.