South Africa Sounds Alarm Over Resurgence in Virus Cases

(Bloomberg) -- South Africa is recording a worrying increase in coronavirus infections, especially in the Western Cape province, which saw a 42% spike in new cases in the last week, according to Health Minister Zweli Mkhize.

Nationwide, new cases increased 9.1% in the last seven days, prompting the health department to urge South Africa’s nine provinces to “quickly mount a response, including contact tracing and quarantine,” Mkhize said in a statement Wednesday.

The rise in infections in the Western Cape province is a resurgence and the provincial health department has identified specific clusters that are responsible for the increase, said Mkhize, who is in quarantine at home after contracting the virus himself. The biggest cluster is due to a so-called super-spreader event in a bar in the city of Cape Town, he said.

“The risk of a resurgence remains high,” Mkhize said. “It would be irresponsible of us to ignore ‘small flames’ that we see redeveloping in some parts of the country.”

South Africa’s government lifted most movement restrictions on Oct. 1 after imposing a strict lockdown in March. The country added 2,055 cases on Oct. 21, bringing the total to 708,359 infections and 18,741 deaths, the most in Africa.

Bars, Nightclubs

Complacency is setting in and gatherings in bars and nightclubs are now causing the virus to spread, Salim Abdool Karim, co-chair of the Covid-19 ministerial advisory committee, told Radio SAFM on Sunday.

“It makes it almost inevitable that we will have a second wave,” Karim said. “We’re going to have to look for much more local interventions.”

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