GARDEN ROUTE NEWS - Forty new Covid-19 cases were reported in the Garden Route in the past week, but the number of active cases is still declining week on week.

One death was recorded in the past week (totalling 2 478 since the start of the pandemic).

As at Tuesday 23 November, the district had 65 recorded active cases (George 23, Mossel Bay 13, Oudtshoorn 10, Knysna 4, Bitou 7, Hessequa 4 and Kannaland 4) compared with 72 a week ago and 112 the week before that. The cumulative number of cases on Tuesday was 66 967.

District health director Zee Brickles called for vigilance even though the numbers are small. "In order to mitigate a possible fourth wave, we need to get as many people vaccinated as possible, especially those older than 50 years and those with co-morbidities," he said.

A total of 35% of the Garden Route population has received at least one dose of vaccine. In the 50 plus age group, 65% has been fully vaccinated and in the 18- to 49-year-old group 51% has received at least one dose. 

These figures represent a small increase in vaccination of about 1% week on week. To date, 345 313 vaccines have been administered in the district.

Brickles said vaccination teams are actively doing outreaches to outlying areas, businesses, education institutions and elsewhere.

Province-wide decline

On Friday 19 November, the Western Cape Health Department said cases in the province continue to decline by 5% week on week. "When compared to the inter-wave periods of October 2020 and April 2021, all metrics are now at lower levels than they have been previously," said the department. This shows that the province is on the right path to beating the pandemic.

Last week, the province recorded an average of 40 new cases and about two deaths per day. The proportion rate of positive tests is about 1,7%.

Increase in Gauteng

In a statement on Monday 22 November, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) said there has been an increase in the seven-day moving average for new cases in the country. Most of these cases, including localised (cluster) increases, were reported in Gauteng. 

NICD acting executive director Prof Adrian Puren said such localised increases in case numbers are not unexpected. "However, it is hard to say whether the increases indicate the start of a widespread resurgence."

He said previous waves have been driven to a large extent by the emergence of new Sars-CoV-2 variants - beta in the second wave and delta in the third wave. "Genomic sequencing in South Africa has, to date, not yet detected the emergence of any new variants making up an increasing proportion of the sequences."

Currently, just over 40% of adults in the country have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, with 35% being fully vaccinated.

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