According to reports from the Steve Biko Academic Hospital and Tshwane District Hospital (SBAH-TDH), most of the patients that are hospitalised are young and unvaccinated.
The reports are based on the “early experience of the patient profile” and the SBAH are working with TDH and created the SBAH-TDH complex in order to manage SARS-CoV-2 patients.
Tshwane considered as a “global epicentre”
According to the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC), Tshwane is a global epicentre as the first case of the new variant, Omicron, was discovered.
The statistics are based on the first two weeks of the Omicron wave in Tshwane. During those weeks, a “sharp rise” in hospital admissions can be seen with 166 new patients between 14 and 29 November 2021.
And according to the data, 38 adults were in the Covid wards on 2 December, where only six were vaccinated. Of the rest, 24 were unvaccinated, while with had unknown vaccination statuses.
Furthermore, of the nine patients who were taken to hospital for Covid-19 pneumonia, eight were unvaccinated. A child was also among those eight.
“Only a single patient on oxygen was fully vaccinated but the oxygen was for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,” said the author of the report, Dr Fareed Abdullah.
Abdullah is the Director of the Office of AIDS and TB Research at the SAMRC. He is also a part-time HIV Clinician at the SBAH.
Age profiles of patients are different from provious waves
According to Abdullah, the age profile of the 166 patients differed “markedly” from the previous waves.
This indicates that, in the last two weeks, no fewer than 80% of admissions were below age 50.
“It may be that this is a vaccination effect as 57% of people over the age of 50 have been vaccinated in the province compared to 34% in the 18 to 49 age group,” Abdullah said.
The data also shows that of the 166 patients, 19% were children between ages 0-9. And 28% of the patients were between ages 30-39.
How severe is the Omicron variant?
When asked, “Is Omicron more severe than the other variants?”, Abdullah explains:
“The best indicator of disease severity is measured by the in-hospital death rate. There were 10 deaths in the SBAH-TDH cohort in the past two weeks, making up 6.6% of the 166 admissions.”
Of these 10 deaths, four were in adults ages 26-36, and five were adults over age 60.
“One death was in a child in whom the cause of death was unrelated to COVID.”
Abdullah also added that, over the last two weeks, there were no Covid-related deaths among 34 admissions in the paediatric Covid-19 wards.
“For now, the death rates over the last two weeks as well as over the past 18 months at the SBAH-TDH complex are lower than the overall in-hospital death rate of 23% for the country overall previous waves, as reported by the NICD,” he added.
In addition, the report also shows that a shorter average length of hospital stay is needed. For the Omricon variant, a stay of 2.8 days was needed compared to 8.5 days for the past 18 months.
Media Statement: Most patients in COVID-19 wards in Tshwane – unvaccinated, young