The Ministry of Health has announced that Namibia has entered a 5th wave of COVID-19 infections, amid rising infections and hospitalizations.
“Namibia is engulfed in the Fifth Wave. More and more patients are being admitted in the hospitals. We note with concern that patients who are admitted to ICU are those who are not vaccinated. We announce 103 positive cases from 848 results in the last 24-hour reporting cycle, representing a 12.1% positivity ratio,” the Ministry of Health said.
Of the total new cases recorded, Windhoek is leading with 50 followed by Gobabis with 11 cases and Otjiwarongo with 9 cases.
“The number of infections in the school environment and in the community is a matter of concern.”
According to latest government data, a total of 463 899 people aged 18 years and older have received one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, representing 31.5% of the target population by the 21st of May 2022.
The pronouncement by the Ministry comes as Health minister Kalumbi Shangula early this month revealed the country had detected two new Omicron sub variants that are driving a surge of COVID-19 infections in South Africa.
The detected variants are sub-lineage BA.2, sub-lineage BA.4, which have been blamed for the on-going rise in COVID-19 cases in the country, with the possibility of BA.5 also being in circulation.
According to Johns Hopkins University confirmed cases of COVID-19 have passed 514.2 million globally.
The number of confirmed deaths has now passed 6.23 million. More than 11.6 billion vaccination doses have been administered globally, according to the World Economic Forum.