MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th July, 2020) As the number of coronavirus cases has been increasing rapidly in South Africa, the World Health Organization believes the nation has not passed the peak of the pandemic yet, the WHO Health Emergency Programme's regional adviser for Africa told Sputnik.
"A lot of interventions are being scaled up to try and reduce transmission in this place... From what we are seeing we cannot tell when the peak will be. I think that this is going to be determined by the level of sustained implementation of preventive measures but also interventions like isolation of the infected, contact tracing as well as managing of the sick. What we are seeing is that the country does not yet have the peak," Miriam Nanyunja said.
South Africa has been adding around 10,000 new cases per day, driving up the infection rate in the entire region where the country accounts for about 60 percent of all cases, the WHO health worker said.
"The numbers have increased over the past weeks as the outbreak expanded to big cities with high population density and high numbers of people living in formal settlements... In last two weeks South Africa has been reporting close to 10,000 cases per day and about 200 deaths or above per day. That is certainly worrying," Nanyunja said.
South Africa's Department of Health reported 13,150 new cases on Wednesday, 13,104 on Thursday and 13,944 on Friday. The total now stands at 421,996, with 6,343 people having died from the virus since the start of the outbreak.
