For the third consecutive day, daily Covid cases have dropped in South Africa. Hospital admissions also fell just one month after Omicron’s outbreak.
According to data from the National Institute For Communicable Disorders (NICD), only 8,515 people have tested positive within the last 23 hours. This is down from 13,992 on Monday. It is the greatest drop since Omicron’s outbreak.
Hospitalisations have fallen by five percent today, with 323 people being admitted.
After dropping 53 percent yesterday, it’s their second consecutive day of falling.
However, there was a significant drop in testing this week with 28,000 compared to 45,000 last Wednesday, which could be impacting the cases.
The test-positive rate is also down slightly from last week. It could indicate that the epidemic may be decreasing.
In a 855 Percent increase last Monday, Fatalities (which are the largest lagging indicator) rose to 105 today.
It marked the highest daily figure in South Africa’s latest wave, but is a fraction of the 844 daily deaths the country recorded at the peak last winter.
Since November 24, when Omicron was first reported, South African physicians have maintained for several weeks that Omicron has been milder.
However, there is ongoing discussion about whether South Africa’s natural immunity is naturally milder after it was battered in the Delta incident months ago.
South Africa accuses the UK of panicking over Omicron. Government scientists warn of as many as 6,000 deaths per day and 10,000 admissions to hospitals at peak Omicron this winter.
8.515 Daily infections have been reported in South Africa. This means that approximately 3.3 million South Africans have had to test positive for the virus during this pandemic.
The NICD said there are nearly 200,000 ‘active cases’ in the country.
The company carried out 28250 tests within the past 24 hours, and 29.9% of them were positive. For comparison, around five per cent of the UK’s daily Covid tests are positive.
The most cases were reported in Kwazulu Natal (2596), followed by Gauteng (1,890), then Western Cape (1625).
South Africa’s positivity rate most recently peaked at 35 per cent last Tuesday and has been trending downwards since.
Meanwhile, 328 infected people were admitted to South Africa’s 666 hospitals and 8,435 people with Covid are currently receiving hospital care.
Since the outbreak, there have been 457320 Covid hospitalisations.
And 105 new deaths were recorded, bringing the country’s Covid fatality toll to 90,453.
Data from China suggests that the virus is now fading about a month following its detection. Scientists in Britain are worried about how the waves will impact their country over the next few weeks.
This booster campaign has strengthened the UK’s efforts to fight Omicron. South Africa does not give third doses, and only 23 percent of its population has been vaccinated.
UK experts warn Britain’s elderly and dense population are more vulnerable to large and fatal epidemics.
The chief medical officer of England, Professor Chris Whity said last week that he expects to see Omicron’s daily case numbers rise tremendously in the UK, and also to see them ‘come back down faster than other peaks’. It is similar to South Africa’s experience with Omicron.
Professor Whitty told MPs on the Health and Social Care Committee last week: ‘I think what we will see with this is — and I think we’re seeing it in South Africa — is that the upswing will be very incredibly fast even if people are taking more cautious action.
Professor Whitty added: ‘It’ll probably therefore peak really quite fast.
‘My anticipation is it may then come down faster than previous peaks but I wouldn’t want to say that for sure.’
This is despite the fact that Britain’s Daily Covid Cases have not moved for four days, despite Government scientists claiming they double every 48-72 hours.
The Department of Health statistics showed that 91,743 cases of infection were registered today. That’s up by two-thirds over last Monday and one-tenth from yesterday.
After a record-breaking 93,045 cases were reported last Friday, and a staggering 90,418 Saturday, this was the third breach of 90,000 cases per day. However, this number was lower than what the estimate of doubling would indicate.
Covid testing is not an issue. A record 1.5million Britons are now testing positive for the virus every day.
Today’s record of 22750 cases in London epicentre was reached. It was slightly higher than yesterday’s 21,594 and lower than the highs recorded at 25,000 this weekend. The capital also hosts a record number of tests every day, with 250,000 being performed daily.
Another good thing is that hospitalisations have remained flat. 919 were recorded on December 14. This was barely any change from 926 seven days before.
Health chiefs also reported 14 more deaths due to the virus, an increase of 15% in one week.
Britain’s Omicron death count has now increased to 12 with 104 Omicron patients hospitalized. However, Professor Chris Whitty warned that there may be many more Omicron patients in the hospital due to delays in testing.
Today, Boris Johnson delayed a decision about whether additional Covid curbs should have been imposed prior to Christmas. Angry Tory MPs demanded that the Prime Minister inform the nation if festive plans could be allowed.
This afternoon, Johnson convened an emergency Cabinet meeting on the issue of whether any further steps were necessary. According to reports, no decision was made at this meeting. It is now unlikely that any further restrictions will be put in place before Christmas.