Deliberately spreading fake news and other misinformation in South Africa about the virus was declared an offence punishable by a fine, six months' imprisonment, or both.
In this digital era, knowledge that is open and obtainable empowers people, boosts productivity, builds a sense of community, and also affords creativity
Creativity allows me to utilise South Africa's COVID-19 data and information and visually portray the numbers in an uncomplicated way. In a way that tells a story. In a way that is easily understood by just about anybody
Access to knowledge and data allows me to turn the numbers into simple and clear graphics that put the numbers in perspective and understand the overall situation.
Sharing this information on twitter makes it easily accessible to the general public.
We need to wait for and see a sustained decrease in cases for 7 days to confirm a peak has been reached, i.e. 7-day rolling average showing <= 0% change week-on-week 📉
But rate of increase of cases has certainly slowed passing an inflection point... 🤞
This graph shows a 7-day rolling average, so what we are seeing is not the "weekend effect" as the 7-day average takes that into account. This dip gives some hope!
However, it's too early to say if Gauteng has actually peaked - need to wait a few more days to confirm that..
Of course, we're not out of the woods either; the curve can turn upwards again at any time if there are any further spikes due to cluster outbreaks and possible superspreader events...
Also, the infection rate is still very high and risk remains high so need to remain vigilant...
The 3rd wave of hospitalisations is here! #COVID19 numbers are about to exceed previous peaks. We're entering uncharted territory. How high we go is still up to us,and our collective behaviour! #Rid1TweetsonCovid
Gauteng is currently the epicentre of South Africa's 3rd wave, and the most populous province in SA 🇿🇦
There have been over 35000 new cases reported in Gauteng over the past 7 days, i.e. an average of over 5000 per day, up 88% compared to the previous week 📈
Reported deaths are always high on Tuesdays (post-weekend), but this is significantly higher and this is highest reported in months. Trend is clearly going up again 👇
Here's a look at the key metrics of case incidence and test positivity rate per province in South Africa 📊
Quite a lot going on between the provinces, so I'll make this a thread 👇
Let's start with good news!
Northern Cape and Free State showing promising signs of a decline. Both are still at very high case incidence rates,so certainly not out of the woods yet 📉
NC case incidence rose up to 1.5 times previous peak.
FS went up to 90% of 2nd wave's peak 🌄
Gauteng is most concerning at the moment 🚩
Average of 2,531 cases/day over the past week; 52% of total cases in SA ⬆️
Cases in GP currently doubling every 2 weeks 📈
Hospital admissions also increasing, up +30% week-on-week. More deaths being reported now too ⚠️