POST-EASTER EFFECTS: COVID-19 CASES STILL LOW

MBABANE - The country might be cleared from post-Easter COVID-19 effects.

Despite the predictions by scientists and government officials that the Easter holidays might fuel the COVID-19 third wave, it may seem that the holidays, which were about two weeks ago, will have less impact. Prior to the Easter holidays, which were from April 2 to April 5, Acting Prime Minister Themba Masuku and other entities, sent out a strong warning, with fears that it would fuel the third wave of the pandemic due to travelling and gatherings. However, about two weeks after the holidays, the cases in the country are still low, with an average of five cases per day for the past month, even after the holidays.

Operations

Worth noting is that despite the Easter holidays, schools and churches had resumed operations at the end of March and the ban on alcohol was lifted. Explaining this, World Health Organisation (WHO) Health Promotion Officer Dr Kevin Makadzange said the effects of the holidays or decisions to open or shut down the economy showed two weeks after the decision. “It has been two weeks after the Easter holidays and the cases are still down. Normally, the results from the holidays show after two weeks, which is the time when people start showing the symptoms of COVID-19,” explained Dr Makadzange. When asked what were probable causes of the low infection rate despite the Easter holidays and the opening of the economy, the health promotion officer said there was less travelling during the holidays and people were possibly complying with COVID-19 regulations.

“The main driver for high infections is travelling and it seems there was less travelling compared to the Christmas holidays,” he said. When asked what caused the spike in cases immediately after the festive season last year, Dr Makadzange said there was a lot of travelling than there was during the Easter holidays. “Also, it seemed that people did not take COVID-19 seriously then, hence breached COVID-19 regulations which then increased the infection rate. Also, people should be mindful that the new variant was discovered in South Africa around December 2020 and it is known to be highly infectious than the initial one,” he said.

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