The South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) says there are hopeful signs that the Coronavirus pandemic may have reached its peak in all provinces at the end of July.
According to this week's report, the number of estimated excess deaths have begun to decrease, consistent with the trend in the number of confirmed COVID-19 deaths.
The information is based on data from the Department of Home Affairs of the deaths registered on the National Population Register.
SAMRC’s chief specialist scientist, Professor Debbie Bradshaw, said the pandemic has different trajectories in the provinces.
She said the Western Cape stood out as having a much slower pandemic which took several weeks to set in but is now taking time to recede.
She said there had been much quicker increases in the pandemic in the Eastern Cape, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.
SAMRC President and CEO, Professor Glenda Gray, added that the downward turn of deaths is a positive sign that the virus may have peaked in some parts of the country and is in keeping with the epidemiological models of the pandemic.
Meanwhile, South Africa still faces the risk of a second wave of the coronavirus.
This is according to Covid-19 ministerial advisory committee chairperson, professor, Salim Abdool Karim.
The country has seen a significant decline in the number of daily new infections of the virus over the past few weeks.
Karim says it had been proven by many countries where some had claimed victory over the virus only for it to return more vigorously.
He adds this isn’t the time for complacency.
