SA could be out of Covid-19 fourth wave within 10 or 11 days, says Prof Adrian Puren

SA could be out of the Covid-19 fourth wave within 10 or 11 days.

This is according to National Institute for Communicable Diseases acting executive director Prof Adrian Puren.

Speaking on Jacaranda FM, Puren said the trajectory of the fourth wave was downwards in the majority of provinces and he hoped that would continue, especially with schools reopening and people returning to their home provinces.

“We hope that overall, the trajectory will still be downwards and that will be indicated by the number of new infections versus hospitalisations and deaths,” said Puren.

“I think that particular picture is promising at this time and that will continue so that we move out of this fourth resurgence.”

Last month, ahead of lifting the curfew, the presidency said the peak of the Covid-19 fourth wave, driven by the highly contagious Omicron variant, had subsided at a national level.

It said cases had declined in all provinces except the Western Cape and Eastern Cape.

“All indicators suggest the country may have passed the peak of the fourth wave at a national level,” the presidency said at the time.

On Monday, premier Alan Winde said the Western Cape had passed the peak of its fourth Covid-19 wave but was not out of it just yet.

“Our province has passed the peak of the fourth wave, but we are not out of it just yet. We are currently seeing an average of 2,200 new cases of Covid-19 each day, and though this is declining, we all need to play our part.

“Based on the modelling prediction, we need to reach 600 new cases per day based on the seven-day-moving average for the province to have exited the fourth wave,” said Winde.