There is a shift in hospital admissions in Gauteng, with 20- to 39-year-olds representing the biggest portion of those admitted. 

This was announced by Dr Mary Kawonga yesterday, while updating the status of Covid-19 in the province.

Dr Kawonga said people between the ages of 50 and 60 made up a smaller percentage of hospital admissions.

The province has been experiencing a resurgence in Covid-19 cases over the past three weeks, which  Kawonga said was driven by the worrying new variant – Omicron.

“There are 43% of people between the ages of 20 and 39 who are hospitalised and only 24% of people between the ages of 50 and 60 who are in hospital. This is the number that has the most vaccinated people. In the past four weeks the percentage of hospitalised Covid-19 patients under 40 years has increased,” she said.

She said deaths were increasing at a much lower rate than cases, and at a lower rate than during the third wave of the pandemic.

“In the week that ended November 21 there were 14 deaths and the following week there were 25 deaths. During the third wave surge, when the province was reporting 9,000-plus Covid-19 cases per week, the deaths were at 475 per week,” Dr Kawonga  said.

She said subdistricts in Tshwane had recorded the highest positivity rates in the province, whereas these rates were lower in the other districts. However, increasing trends had been noted.

“The rapid increase in cases during this resurgence is concerning. However, the new variant is still SARS-CoV-2. It is transmitted in exactly the same way as previous SARS-CoV-2 strains through contact between people, aerosol transmission. Therefore, the same measures used for previous waves and variants remain essential, which is adherence to non-pharmaceutical interventions and vaccination to protect against severe disease,” Dr Kawonga said.

She said there was currently no evidence that the Covid-19 vaccines used in SA would not protect against severe disease with the Omicron variant.

“Vaccination is still the best defence against severe Covid-19. Early indications from trends in the Gauteng data signal that the Covid-19 vaccines are doing what they were designed to do, to protect vaccinated people against hospitalisation and death,” Dr Kawonga said.