Enter the 3rd wave: SA adds 9149 COVID-19 cases, crosses the threshold

South Africa has technically entered the third wave of COVID-19 infections on Thursday, 10 June, according to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD). The institute said more than 9000 new cases have been identified, which represents a test positivity rate of 15,7%.

9149 CASES DETECTED, ENTER THE THIRD WAVE, SAYS NICD

The COVID-19 Ministerial Advisory Committee (MAC) declares a new wave once the average cases over a particular period of time reaches a certain threshold. South Africa exceeded that mark – 5959 cases – on Thursday.

“South Africa technically entered the third wave today as the national 7-day moving average incidence (5959 cases) now exceeds the new wave threshold as defined by the MAC,” said the NICD in a statement.

The MAC advisory defines the new wave 7-day moving average threshold as 30% of the peak incidence of the previous wave.

On Thursday, South Africa’s COVID-19 cases increased by 268 to 9149 new cases. Gauteng was the most affected province for the second day running, accounting for 5597 (61%) of the daily cases. The Western Cape came in second with 932 cases (10%).

Both the Western Cape and Gauteng’s provincial departments of health declared that they had entered the third wave of infections, based on their statistics, earlier on Thursday.

According to the NICD, 844 more people were hospitalised in the past 24 hours and 127 additional deaths were recorded in health facilities.

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