Health
Ramaphosa Eases South African Virus Curbs as New Cases Abate
South Africa has eased restrictions as COVID cases drop. President Ramaphosa says previous restrictions succeeded in reducing infections. South Africa is the country hardest hit by the pandemic in all of Africa, with a total of more than 1and a half million confirmed cases and nearly 50,000 deaths.
South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa announced on Sunday that the nation will move from coronavirus alert level three to one in light of the fall in daily new infections. Under level one, most remaining restrictions on economic activity will be lifted.
He said restrictions put in place over the holiday period had succeeded in reducing infections levels – from 90,000 a week at the end of December, to 10,000 new infections last week.
President Ramaphosa said all energy and effort must now go into growing the economy, while exercising extreme caution to prevent further spread of the virus. He said during an address to the nation that new infections, admissions to hospitals and deaths have fallen significantly and continue to decline steadily. He said the threat of a third wave is constantly present, as is the threat of new variants emerging.
He said social distancing, avoiding crowds and wearing masks, are more important than ever. More than 67,000 frontline healthcare workers have been vaccinated over the last ten days — with the number of vaccination sites available in the country expanding from 17 to 49.
Ramaphosa added that the country had secured a further 11 million vaccines from Johnson & Johnson — which is expected to provide 57-85% efficacy against mild to severe disease caused by the more contagious coronavirus strain present in the country.
Two persons have been reported killed in Oyo State after been infected with the deadly COVID-19 Delta variant.
The state incident manager and coordinator of the emergency operations centre, Dr. Olabode Ladipo said one other person is in state isolation facility and receiving medical attention.
Oyo state government announced on Sunday it had found the Delta strain of the coronavirus which entered into the state through movement of people travelling around the world.
W.H.O. said this variant first detected in India and now in at least 90 countries, has high transmission, and increase severity of infection.
Authorities in the state said they have begun contact tracing and urged the general public to take extra caution.
Oyo State task force on COVID-19 says the deadly delta variant has now been detected in Oyo. The state incident manager and coordinator of the emergency operations centre, Dr. Olabode Ladipo, notified the public in a statement on Sunday asking the general public to take extra caution. The delta strain has been associated with high transmission, increase severity of infection and outcomes.
Last week Thursday, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) had said on Thursday, the coronavirus delta variant first discovered in India has been confirmed in Nigeria, in a traveller, following the routine travel test made compulsory for all international travellers.
In a latest data released today Monday, NCDC says 12 new COVID-19 cases have been reported from 3 states- Akwa Ibom (6), Ogun (4), and Rivers 2 cases, bringing the total number of persons who have tested positive in the country to 168,552 and 2,124 deaths.
The variant, has already been detected in more than 90 countries, and is expected to spread to others.
Oyo COVID-19 task force has warned residents of the state to continue complying all advisories at curtailing the spread of the virus.
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