Prognosis
S. Africa Faces New Lockdown Curbs as Delta Variant Spreads
- Government urges tighter virus restrictions to curb spread
- Delta variant highly transmissible, medical experts say
Health care workers awaits doses to start vaccinating people at the Bertha Gxowa Hospital in Germiston, South Africa.
Photographer: Michele Spatari/AFP/Getty Images
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South Africa’s acting health minister said the Delta coronavirus variant is dominant in the country, fueling a third wave of infections that may prompt the government to tighten lockdown restrictions further.
The current resurgence of the disease could be worse than the second wave after studies discovered the prevalence of the new strain first detected in India, Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane said in an online news conference on Saturday. The new variant is driving infections in South Africa’s commercial hub of Gauteng, she said.