[imagesource: Ffikretow / Getty Images]

South Africa is due another President Ramaphosa 8PM address soon.

I’ll refrain from calling them ‘family meetings’ because that would imply it’s a two-way thing when in truth Ramaphosa is clearly afraid of fielding tough questions and buggers off as soon as he’s done.

That’s being kind – others have called these addresses “a pack of insulting lies”.

The next address is expected to see the president announce the formal dropping of the national state of disaster, more than 700 days after it was put in place. The current state of disaster ends on March 15.

The fourth wave has come and gone and experts like Prof Shabir Madhi are also advocating for the end of lockdown restrictions, saying this week that they are “completely obsolete, and are in fact now doing more damage”.

He points to the results of a recent study showing that half of the children in South Africa have had COVID-19, as have about 80% of adults older than 50, arguing this provides boosted immunity against the virus.

Discovery chief executive Adrian Gore is also looking forward, posting to LinkedIn about his company’s approach to the fifth wave.

You can watch his video here. We’ll get the basics via BusinessTech:

…Gore says a fifth Covid wave in South Africa is likely to be a lot more benign and less severe compared to previous waves, but that the group will still treat it with caution.

…Gore [below] said that the country’s previous Covid waves have all followed similar patterns when it comes to duration and time, with the peak between one wave and another typically measuring at around 170 days.

Image: Discovery

Gore said Covid variants appear to emerge in parallel to one another – so there is no reason why the next wave will be less severe than previous ones. However, he noted that the virus is expected to become more benign and endemic as time goes on. Based on these patterns, Gore said a wave could arrive in South Africa at the end of April and early May.

Just leave us alone until after the Easter long weekend, please.

It’s believed that certain lockdown restrictions will be lifted soon. Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla has said that doesn’t mean they’ll stay lifted forever, telling The Sunday Times that “in the event of the infection rate soaring again, the need may arise to look at other regulation tools, including the Disaster Management Act.”

Gore’s timeframe is roughly aligned with that of Professor Salim Abdool Karim, who also expects the fifth wave to arrive by the end of April.

He said that wave will be driven by a new variant rather than Omicron, cautioning that “the issue is that nobody can predict what the new variant will look like.”

Be kind to us, mutations. We are nearing two years of this and it’s way, way past its sell-by date.

[sources:businesstech&sundaytimes]