We are now close to a week under adjusted level 4 lockdown in an effort to curb the number of infections during the third wave of COVID-19 in South Africa.

If the latest numbers shared by the National Department of Health (NDoH) is anything to go by, the lockdown is not having the desired result as 16 585 cases and 333 fatalities have been recorded over the past 24 hours.

It therefore looks like the delta variant of the virus, which has been identified in a number of provinces to date, is the cause for concern.

While the department explains that the majority of infections at this stage are the beta variant, Gauteng for example, is struggling to cope as it has now surpassed 700 000 cases so far.

Should this continue, it is looking increasingly likely that level 4 lockdown will remain in effect, but we will have to wait until 11th July for the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) to come to a decision on that front.

As for the other key figures in the report, the total number of infections for COVID-19 in South Africa has since climbed to 2 062 896. The recovery rate has dropped to 87.6 percent and the death toll has increased to 61 840.

While the infection and death rates are climbing, the vaccine rollout remains slow, with 2 834 505 vaccines administered to date as of 17:00 on 4th July 2021.

The full breakdown of COVID-19 in South Africa is as follows:

As always, in order to stay up to date with the spread of COVID-19 in South Africa and abroad, we advise the following materials and platforms:

• Dr Zweli Mkhize on Twitter
• COVID-19 Connect on WhatsApp – add 0600 123 456 as a contact and say “Hi”.
• World Health Organisation
• SA Coronavirus website
• SA Government
• SA Presidency

[Image – Photo by Eugene Chystiakov on Unsplash]