President Ramaphosa: “Only a matter of time before the country enters into a Covid-19 third wave of infections”

Estimated reading time: 4 minute(s)

Photo: Google

President Matamela Ramaphosa has expressed disappointment in the looming Covid-19 third wave in the country as the health Ministry have been recording an average of 3 475 daily positive cases in the past seven days.

Ramaphosa said this during his national address early Sunday night on Covid-19 update.

He also added that the recent developments on daily cases saw an increase of 31% and 66% in the past weeks respectively.

As of today the Health Department under Dr Zweli Mkhize has recorded a total number of 1 659 070 Covid-19 cases having confirmed 4 515 new cases and 70 new Covid-19 related deaths taking the total number of deaths to 56 363.

“The proportion of Covid-19 tests that are positive has more than doubled in the last month from around 4% to more than 11%, even as we have increased testing across the country.”

“We are advised that a positivity rate of over 5% is a cause for concern.”

He added that the country should be concerned about the increase in case in provinces such as Free State, Northern Cape, North West and Gauteng as they have reached third wave infection threshold already.

“It may only be a matter of time before the country as a whole will have entered a third wave” said the President.