While researchers are warning that it might be too early to tell, doctors are seeing a significantly different clinical profile in their patients admitted for Covid in Tshwane hospitals – giving preliminary and early indications of less Covid pneumonia and less severe disease. Tshwane is significant as it is the epicentre of the current outbreak of infections as severe diseases are most often seen after a few weeks.
Preliminary data and anecdotal evidence from Tshwane hospitals are showing indications that patients have less severe disease, research done by the South African Medical Research Council found.
The country currently has a 23.8% positivity rate meaning more than 1 in 5 tests are positive. Between Friday and Saturday 65,990 people were tested. At this stage, while there is an alarming increase in cases, there does not appear to be a similar exponential increase in admissions for Covid pneumonia, their research found, based on the high proportion of patients not requiring supplemental oxygen.
Of nine patients with Covid pneumonia, eight are unvaccinated, one is a child. Only a single patient on oxygen was fully vaccinated, but the reason for the oxygen was chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. He explained that another change from the previous three waves is that younger people are being admitted.
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