Gauteng province is the hardest hit with 80% of daily infections.
ByFakirHassen:
South African experts have expressed concern about the rising number of COVID-19 infections among young children, even as the country recorded an additional 16,055 infections and 25 deaths overnight on Friday.
“We’ve always seen children who haven’t been hit hard by Covid in the past (and) don’t have to be hospitalized as much (to the hospital.) In the third wave, we see more children under the age of five and young people,” he said. 15 to 19 year olds hospitalized.
Dr Waasila Jassat of the National Institutes of Infectious Diseases (NICD) said: “Now, at the start of this fourth wave, we see a pretty sharp increase in all age groups, especially in people under the age of the Ministry of Health on Friday.
“As expected, the incidence remains lowest in children. However, the incidence in people under the age of 5 is now second highest and second only to the incidence in people over 60 years of age.
Jassat added: “The trend that we are seeing now is different from what we have seen before, which is an increasing rate of hospitalization among children under 5 years of age.
Dr Michelle Groome, also from NICD, said more research will be done to investigate the reasons behind this phenomenon.
“It is still very early in the wave. At this stage it’s just starting in younger age groups and we’ll know more (by) monitoring this age group in the coming weeks.
“We just need to highlight the importance of being ready for surgery, including the pediatric bed and staff,” says Groome.
Dr Ntsakisi Maluleke, an official with the health department of Gauteng province, which has been hardest hit with 80% of daily infections, also expressed concern.
Maluleke said: “The phenomenon of increased infection among younger age groups as well as pregnant women is currently under investigation.
“We hope that in the coming weeks we can also come up with a reason why this particular group of patients is experiencing an increase in infections,” she added.
Health Minister Joe Phaahla said at the press conference that infection and positivity rates were increasing in seven of South Africa’s nine provinces.
“Only the Free State and the Northern Cape have low user numbers and low engagement rates,” he said.
“Although we’re still working on it for a few days and the data is limited, there are indications that this variant is indeed highly transmissible, including infections in people who have been vaccinated. vaccines, but infections mostly cause mild illness, especially among vaccinated people,” the minister said.
Phaahla said those hospitalized were mostly unvaccinated people and young people under the age of 40, most of whom were unvaccinated.
“At this stage, even in Gauteng province, which accounts for 80% of daily new infections, we have not yet reached the stage of threat in terms of hospital capacity and new hospitalizations.
“The trend is indeed rapidly accelerating, but we expect that the mild nature of the illness in those infected will continue to be the dominant feature,” the minister said.
Phaahla provides a guarantee that both the nation and Gauteng
Provincial health services will be able to deal with seriously ill people.
However, an identified risk is that even if they have a mild illness, medical staff will have to be isolated resulting in a shortage of skilled staff at hospitals.
The Health Minister said that the provincial and national authorities are considering solving this problem urgently.
Dr Ramphelane Morewane of the National Department of Health said a contingency plan had been put in place across South Africa to ensure that hospitals were never short of oxygen during the fourth wave.
.
