South African Health Minister Dr. Joe Phala on Friday said the country is expected to enter the fourth wave of COVID-19 infections in November this year, reported AllAfrica.
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases reported 357 COVID-19-related deaths on Thursday, bringing the total number of fatalities to 80 826. Over 12,700 new daily coronavirus cases were reported.
During a virtual briefing, Dr. Phala urged South Africans over the age of 18 to get vaccinated against COVID-19. He also updated about the government’s efforts to fight COVID-19 and vaccination rollout plans.
He urged everybody above 18 years old to get vaccinated before the end of the year in order to protect themselves from the fourth wave of coronavirus. The registrations for the 18 to 34 age group opened last week.
The South African health minister raised concern that the third wave of the virus is taking longer to subside than the first two, which could be harmful to health services with the fourth wave looming.
“We know that it is almost accepted that somewhere towards the end of the year, we will have the fourth wave and we want to make sure that all South Africans are protected against that by taking the vaccination,” he said.
Dr. Phala said it is important to achieve herd immunity through vaccination.
“It’s going to take some time and there’s going to be a number of waves but what we are told and what seems to be the route to go is that the more we cover in vaccinations, the less mutations and if there are less mutations and less viral loads of this COVID-19, then there will be less waves coming,” he said.
The South African minister added that at least 1.5 million doses of either the Johnson & Johnson or Pfizer vaccines were administered over the past week.
According to government figures, a total of 8.8 million South Africans have received at least one vaccination, with 5 450 000 fully vaccinated.
