South Africa covid data Dec 7

Testing picked back up in South Africa yesterday, leading to a jump in cases but the percentage of positive cases ebbed slightly in what could be an encouraging sign.

  • 23 Nov: 605
  • 24 Nov: 1018
  • 25 Nov : 1950
  • 26 Nov : 2173
  • 27 Nov : 2629
  • 28 Nov : 2308
  • 29 Nov : 1909
  • 30 Nov: 3143
  • 1 Dec: 6168
  • 2 Dec: 8280
  • 3 Dec: 11553
  • 4 Dec: 11,607
  • 5 Dec: 7929
  • 6 Dec: 4488
  • 7 Dec: 8445

The number of tests jumped to 52,890, which was more than double from 24,159 the day before. However the number of cases didn't double as positivity slipped to 24.9% from 26.4%.

Cases nationwide of 13,147 are rising but not at the shockingly fast pace we initially saw in Gauteng.

In terms of hospitalization, data. ICU up 38 (+27% vs. prior day), ventilated up 10 (+24% vs. prior day), oxygenated up 18 (+7.3% vs. prior day). Those look bad but officials say it's a slower pace than previous waves.

gauteng patients hospital

The market is obviously taking a better view of omicron this week and let's hope that continues. One set of data to watch out for is from BioNTech, who says it will have a new set of data on vaccine effectiveness on Wednesday or Thursday.

Earlier today, US Dr. Fauci said real-world evidence was accumulating to show a higher degree of transmissibility and that early information on initial cases appear to show it is less severe.

The market is drawing its own set of conclusions right now and I'm not sure how much of that is hope and how much is hard data/ I get the sense that most people can't even contemplate another year of covid lockdowns and a variant that's somehow worse. In any case, that will all show up in the data eventually and there will be no reason to argue.