By Lehlohonolo Lehana.

The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD),reports 8,524 new COVID-19 cases that have been identified in South Africa, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3 835 902. 

The majority of new cases today are from Gauteng Province (39%) followed by KwaZulu-Natal (27%). Western Cape accounted for 16%; Eastern Cape accounted for 6%; Free State accounted for 5%; Mpumalanga accounted for 3%; Northern Cape and North West each accounted for 2% respectively; and Limpopo accounted for 1% of today’s new cases. 

This increase represents a 31.1% positivity rate.

The proportion of positive new cases/total new tested today is (31.1%), and is higher than yesterday (26.6%). The 7-day average is (23.8%) today, and is higher than yesterday (22.5%). The 7-day moving average daily number of cases has increased.

Today, the National Department of Health (NDoH) reports 11 deaths and of these, 5 occurred in the past 24 – 48 hours. This brings the total fatalities to 100,516 to date.

Meanwhile, Professor Francois Venter, Ezintsha Divisional Head at Wits University, said there’s evidence that we are entering the fifth wave.

There's a sharp increase in infections, with over 9,000 cases and seven deaths reported on Friday.

"If it does prove to be the fifth wave, I think we can anticipate it's going to be B4 and B5 subvariants of Omicron," Venter said.

"It's not good news if this is truly a fifth wave and as I said, it looks likely.

Professor Mosa Moshabela says there's no need to panic just yet.

"I think the biggest burden is gonna be on us as South Africans. Most people are going to have infections that won't end up in hospital but they could have long covid, making it difficult for people to go to work and it may end up spreading to people with vulnerabilities," he said.

"I think we have to take it upon ourselves to protect those among us who are vulnerable and avoid the burden of long covid and other complications of Covid."