Fifth Covid-19 wave expected Fellowship programme opens for applications

Johannesburg - A fellowship programme administered by Harvard Centre for African Studies invites South Africa’s historically disadvantaged mid-career professionals to apply.

source allocations in South Africa. Fellowships are for up to one year of study in one of Harvard’s Professional and Graduate Schools, with tuition provided by the participating school.

Johannesburg - A fifth wave of Covid-19 may be expected in early May, dependent on emergence of a new variant, according to epidemiologist Professor Salim Abdool Karim.

Since the lifting of the national state of disaster, citizens have been warned to remain vigilant.

“We are still living in a pandemic and if past trends continue, it is likely that we can see a new wave of infections in winter,” Karim said.

He added that the Covid-19 surge in China may not raise immediate concern as it is driven by the Omicron variant, which has already peaked in South Africa.

“It depends on whether we have a new Covid-19 variant, with none detected as yet. There are some early indications, for example,

BA4 is now increasing in South Africa, Deltacron is increasing in some countries, but a clear-cut new variant has not been reported yet,” Karim said.

He added that it is unlikely that a new Covid-19 wave can be driven by a past variant, as many people have developed immunity from natural infection or vaccination.