By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), reports 171 new COVID-19 cases that have been identified in South Africa, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 4,000,631.
The NDoH reports 4 deaths, of which 0 occurred in the past 24 to 48 hours. The cumulative COVID-19 deaths are 101,922 to date.
Meanwhile Health experts across the globe are signalling alarm as they begin reporting that Omicron BA.5, the coronavirus strain that is currently outpacing other variants in infection and has become the dominant strain in the US and abroad, has the ability to reinfect people within weeks of contracting the virus.
Andrew Roberston, the chief health officer in Western Australia, told News.com.au that though previously the wisdom held that most people would retain a certain level of protection against reinfection if they were vaccinated or had retained some level of natural immunity due to a recent contraction of the virus, this hasn’t been the case with the most recent strain.
“What we are seeing is an increasing number of people who have been infected with BA.2 and then becoming infected after four weeks, “the doctor explained during an interview with the Australian news outlet. “So maybe six to eight weeks they are developing a second infection, and that’s almost certainly BA.4 or BA.5.”
The ability for strains BA.4 and BA.5 to reinfect individuals who would in previous waves of Covid-19 had stronger immunity has led some experts to start calling this latest strain the most transmissible yet.
The ability for strains BA.4 and BA.5 to reinfect individuals who would in previous waves of Covid-19 had stronger immunity has led some experts to start calling this latest strain the most transmissible yet.