The Western Cape’s Health Department confirmed that confirmed COVID-19 cases and hospitalisations are continuing to increase in the province.
Earlier this month the Health Department said the Western Cape has officially entered the fourth wave of COVID-19 as the infection rates have increased significantly compared to the previous wave.
According to the latest statistics, there’s has been an increase of over 20% in-hospital admissions, with the current number of COVID-19 hospitalizations at 826 based on a 7-day-moving average.
“We are coping because, in anticipation of a fourth wave, we established a 6-point resurgence plan. This plan uses hospital capacity as the most important measure, triggering and upscaling in its resource capacity to ensure we are always able to care for those in need,” the department said
📢Covid-19 dashboard update for 22 December 2021.
To get more information, you can visit our dashboard on https://t.co/jv06tCzU5x pic.twitter.com/LhIeCHOYTv
— Premier Alan Winde (@alanwinde) December 22, 2021
Meanwhile, the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) revealed during a media briefing on Wednesday, December 22 the Omicron variant is less severe, with fewer hospitalisations compared to the previous waves.
According to the NICD’s Professor Cheryl Cohen, Omicron patients had an 80% lower chance of hospital admissions.
“However, when we compare Omicron to the Delta in the previous waves, amongst hospitalised people, [it] was significantly 70% less in severity.
“So all the data together are pointing to a very consistent predictor picture of a reduction in severity in South Africa,” Cohen indicated.
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