CAPE CITY, South Africa – Approximately 12 million people in South Africa have “probably” become inflamed with coronavirus, however, this strangely high number has not caused such a high mortality rate and may simply imply a widespread “immunity level”. Minister of Health.
More than 20% of South Africa’s population had the virus at the same time, Dr. Zweli Mkhize estimated this week, and cited studies indicating that the presence of coronavirus antibodies in blood samples taken from portions of the population. government to publish a more comprehensive national study, Mkhize said.
“South Africa has noticed that the outbreak is receding and therefore raises doubts about the point of immunity that would possibly already exist in society,” he said.
Other studies have indicated that up to 40% of the population may also be simply immune to the virus, the Minister of Health said. Some South African experts recommend that Africa’s greatest evolved economy may come in collective immunity, but scientists who at least 70-80% of a population will have to be immunized before an effect occurs. And with COVID-19, it’s unclear how long this immunity can last.
As virus cases were shown to decline significantly, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa heads to the country on Wednesday night and is expected to announce additional easing of blocking restrictions, which may come with limited opening of foreign borders to travelers in some countries.
The number of cases shown of the virus in South Africa has decreased particularly in recent weeks after a peak last July that saw the country record up to 15,000 cases per day, leading to fears that physical fitness in some major cities will simply collapse. showed only 772 new instances on Tuesday.
South Africa is also experiencing a drop in hospital admissions, others in extensive care sets and deaths attributed to COVID-19, Mkhize said.
“The coherence between these signs assures us that, in fact, we are at a low point in the pandemic,” he said.
South Africa has just over 650,000 cases shown of COVID-19, according to the government’s most recent official count, the eighth highest number of cases in the world. At its peak, South Africa was the fifth most affected country, the United States, India, Brazil and Russia, all of which have much larger populations.
Experts have been looking for months to find out why South Africa’s official COVID-19 mortality rate is low: another 15,641 people have died, government figures show. At the beginning of the pandemic, he feared that poverty, overcrowded living conditions, limited access to blank water, and the increased prevalence of tuberculosis and HIV could put South Africa, and Africa as a whole, at risk of millions of deaths.
SoArray that hasn’t happened. South Africa is among the hardest hit country in Africa, with almost a portion of the 1. 3 million cases shown on the continent. There were 33,000 COVID-19 deaths in the 54 African countries, which have a population of 1. 3 billion. number of other people who died in the UK or Italy, and well below the 195,000 who showed deaths in the United States.
But Africa’s figures, calculated through the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are based on figures from individual countries and many have incredibly limited evidence.
The number of actual COVID-19 deaths in South Africa is expected to be particularly higher. From early May to mid-September, the country recorded 44,000 more deaths than the old average. Many of these deaths are thought to be due to COVID-19, but others have not been tested. Other deaths may be simply from others with other ailments who have avoided attention due to fears of or have not been able to access COVID-19 infection because resources have been diverted to the pandemic, experts have said.
“We believe that about 30,000 people instead of 15,000 died from COVID-19,” said Shabir Madhi, a professor of vaccination at the University of Johannesburg in Witswatersrand, at a webinar this week. “We want to perceive that there have been many outdoor deaths from hospitals. “
Even with this higher point of death, the mortality rate in South Africa from COVID-19 appears to be relatively low. Some fitness experts say millions of others in South Africa’s deficient and densely populated communities, many of whom believe they would be extraordinarily affected. through the virus – it would possibly have generated immunity to the virus due to the past and common spread of other coronaviruses, adding those of the common cold and flu.
”They’ve been exposed, they’ve developed this key cellular immunity that’s helping them combat the serious effects of COVID-19′,” said Madhi, lead researcher at a South African clinical trial of the coronavirus vaccine being prepared by Oxford University. pharmaceuticals. AstraZeneca. ” They could have received underlying immunity. “
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Andrew Meldrum in Johannesburg contributed.
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