World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that, ‘if we can unite our efforts’, the Covid-19 pandemic would be over quicker than the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918.
The 1918 outbreak killed about 50 million people before it ended in 1920.
Tedros said the goal of defeating Covid-19 in less than two years would be possible if people were united in their efforts, and made the most of the available tools, including vaccines.
‘In our current situation … the virus is more likely to spread. It can move quickly because we are more connected now,’ he said.
Despite the ‘disadvantage linked to globalization’, the world had the benefit of ‘having better technologies’.
In South Africa, positive cases grew yesterday by 3 398 to a cumulative total of 603 338 (with 500 102 recoveries). Deaths rose by 225 to 12 843.
The highest tally of cases is in Gauteng (203 832), followed by KwaZulu-Natal (108 788), the Western Cape (103 942) and the Eastern Cape (84 787).
In Gauteng, COO of the Department of Health, Lesiba Malotana, said he believed the peak had now passed and the ‘worst is over’.
The department said the highest number of hospital admissions was recorded in the middle of July. On 22 July, a total of 7 193 patients were in hospital, of whom 1 863 were on oxygen. By 19 August, there were 3 311 Covid-19 patients in public and private hospitals across the province, 922 of whom were on oxygen.
The decline in infections has prompted the cancellation of a planned field hospital at the Tshwane events centre. The Western Cape yesterday closed the 850-bed field hospital which had been set up at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. It had treated 1 502 patients.
Western Cape head of health Dr Keith Cloete told a media conference on Thursday that hospital beds in the province were 70% full, with only 12% of those occupied by people who tested positive for Covid-19.