The Covid-19 second wave is here, confirms Zweli Mkhize

Health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize announced on Wednesday that SA is now in its second wave of Covid-19 infections, with 6,079 new cases reported in the latest 24-hour cycle.

He was speaking after a Covid-19 oversight visit to the Eastern Cape on Wednesday.

Mkhize said his team of scientists and modelling experts have concluded that the rapid and exponential increase in different provinces indicates that more caution should be taken to combat the virus.

“Four provinces — Western Cape, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng — are key drivers of the new wave. It is important to highlight that today we have breached 6,000 in terms of new cases in a single day, with today's total new cases numbering 6,709. This takes the total to 828,598 cumulative cases,” he said.

Up to the past week, the increases were mainly in the Eastern Cape and the Western Cape, and the rise was in specific districts, he said. However, the wave has now spread to other areas.

“Six provinces are affected. The majority of the new cases are from the Western Cape at  30%, the Eastern Cape at 24%, KZN on 23% and Gauteng on 17%.

“These together indicate that we are into the second wave,” Mkhize added.

The Free State, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and North West each accounted for 1% of the new cases and the Northern Cape for less than 1%.

This is a developing story.

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