(Bloomberg) --

South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases said that 68% of Covid-19 hospital admissions in the Tshwane municipal area during the early part of the fourth wave were under 40 years old.

That compares with 66.1% of admissions being over 50 in the early part of the third wave, it said in a statement on Friday. In the early part of the fourth wave 32.9% of admissions were severe, compared with 66.1% in the same period of the third wave.

The NICD said 11% of hospital admissions were under 2 years old.

South Africa’s mass vaccination drive only began at about the beginning of the third wave’s onset. More older South Africans are vaccinated than younger ones. On Nov. 25 South Africa said a new variant, now named omicron, had been identified.

 

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