Western Cape Premier Alan Winde said on Tuesday Covid-19 restrictions are no longer necessary in the province, pointing to data that showed that there has been a continued decoupling between Covid-19 infections, hospitalisations and deaths in the Western Cape.

Last week Winde requested an urgent meeting of the President’s Coordinating Council (PCC) where he would table the province’s latest data in support of the complete removal of the remaining Covid-19 restrictions.

“What is even more striking is that we have already peaked during the latest Covid-19 resurgence, and all indications are that we are starting to see a decrease in Covid-19 infections,” he said.

Western Cape Health Department head Dr Keith Cloete added that the decrease in cases in the Western Cape, as well as nationally, indicated a lower resurgence driven mainly by B.A.4 and B.A.5 Omicron sub-lineages.

Cloete pointed out that the province had refined the trigger-based escalation strategy for managing the impact of a resurgence in cases, for health and other sectors.

The number of new daily cases in the province has decreased since last week with an average of 458 new diagnoses a day.

The PCR proportion positive has decreased to about 24%, while new admissions have decreased to 45 a day.

The metro hospitals have an average bed occupancy rate of 92%.

Covid-19 and person-under-investigation cases currently make up 3% of all available acute general hospital capacity in both metro and rural regional hospital drainage.

Absolute numbers of death have also decreased and remained relatively low at on average 3 deaths a day.

The province has achieved its target of 70% full vaccination of those aged 60 and, with uptake of booster doses remaining highest among those 60 years and older. More than 30% of this age cohort have received a booster dose.

Booster uptake among the 18 to 49 age group remained low.

Cloete said efforts would be made to achieve the national target of 70% partial primary vaccine coverage across all age bands by December 2022.

He said the province’s response over the coming months would require vigilance and agility, explaining that the Western Cape had embarked on a sustained recovery strategy, and would have to live with Covid-19.

“Our biggest weapon remains vaccination, especially for 50 years old. We still require a big whole-of-society effort to continue to generate increased targeted demand for unvaccinated persons and for take-up of boosters for vaccinated persons,” he said.