South African Covid Hospitalizations Reach 8,435, With 6.7% in ICU

(Bloomberg) -- South African hospitals have 8,435 Covid-19 patients, of which 6.7% are in intensive-care units, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases said.

Of the 566 people in ICU, 229 are on ventilators, the institute said in a report on Monday. Of the admissions 3,477 are in Gauteng, the province that includes Johannesburg and Pretoria.

The numbers compare with the 7,951 who were in the hospital a day earlier, with 6.7% of those in ICU.

The Nov. 25 announcement of the discovery of a new coronavirus variant, now named omicron, had sparked concerns of a flood of hospitalizations and severe infections. The country’s three biggest private hospital groups have said that so far cases in the country appear to be milder than in previous infection waves.

The number of people in the hospital due to Covid-19 is, so far, a fraction of the total at the height of earlier infection waves. Covid-19 hospitalizations peaked at nearly 20,000 in January and July, the crest of the country’s second and third waves respectively.

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.