Acting health minister Mmamoloko Kubayi is to give a briefing about the surging third wave of Covid-19 after an emergency meeting of the national coronavirus command council on Saturday.
The 1pm briefing was arranged at short notice amid concern that the third wave is being driven by the Delta variant of the infection that originally emerged in India.TimesLIVE understands that proposals tabled by the health department for Gauteng, where infections are increasing exponentially, include a ban on all gatherings, a request that everyone should work from home if possible, and a two-week ban on alcohol sales.
The acting minister in the presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, confirmed the emergency meeting of the command council, which began at 10am. But she would not say what was on the agenda.on Saturday that the highly infectious Delta variant is one of the biggest contributors to Gauteng's third wave of infections.
Even people who had previously been infected with Covid-19 were susceptible to contracting the new variant, though they would be protected from severe illness, he said. “I think we will get some data coming out from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases next week that there might have been an increase especially in the transmission of the Delta variant, the variant that was first identified in India,” said Madhi.
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