Eastern Cape Premier, Oscar Mabuyane, said indications were that the third wave of the Covid19 pandemic may have reached its peak in the province. Addressing a media briefing on Tuesday, Mabuyane said the number of Covid19 cases in the province in the past week, was lower than the week before.
According to the Health Department’s report on Monday, there are 5 606 active cases in the Eastern Cape.
Mabuyane said while the burden of the Covid-19 virus was still prevalent, the “seven days moving average number of new cases in the province seems to have peaked at around 600 new cases per day in Nelson Mandela Bay.”
He said the new case peak was at around 200 per day and Sarah Baartman, 100 per day in Buffalo City, while there was a case peak of 50 per day in the Chris Hani and Joe Gqabi Districts.
“Our provincial daily Epidemiological Report shows that new infections, active cases, hospitalisation, and deaths remain the lowest among the eight provinces,” Mabuyane said.
“In the past two weeks of July, we had about 10 000 new cases; compared to the second wave. The rate of growth is lower, and we think the trajectory of the third wave will be more downward than the second wave,” he added.
Mabuyane said “we have observed discernible positive signs that the province will be spared from the high growth of the epidemic curve as demonstrated by the data on the moving seven-day average numbers on daily infections, hospitalisation, the case fatality data, the low growth rate of the active cases and the levels of positivity rate.”
He said this showed a subdued resurgence of new cases and lower exponential growth of Covid 19 new cases.
The Premier said the increased availability of vaccine supply and the ramping up of vaccination sites will strengthen the province’s interventions.
He said the Eastern Cape Government has also made all health facilities available as vaccination sites.
