South Africa officially exits Covid third wave

South Africa has officially exited the third wave of Covid-19 infections, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) said.

The NICD, which a division of the National Health Laboratory Service, provides laboratory-based surveillance to inform the public health response towards Covid-19 in South Africa.

“Nationally, we have exited the third wave according to the current definition,” the NCID said in a statement on Sunday. “The national seven-day moving average of daily case numbers, positivity rate and testing rate continues to decrease, with sustained decreases seen in all provinces.”

The institute said there were 967 new Covid-19 cases identified in South Africa on Sunday, bringing the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to almost 2.9 million. “This increase represents a 5% positivity rate.”

A further 51 Covid-19-related deaths were reported, bringing total fatalities to 87 052.  — © 2021 NewsCentral Media