South Africa is locking down again because "hospitals are overwhelmed"

This is a lie. There are 1,300 COVID-19 patients in ICU across the country's 600 hospitals.

That's about two ICU patients per hospital

A contact writes that an ambulance was turned away from 6 hospitals in KZN yesterday, & that hospitals are pulling docs out of retirement

Not sure what's going on. COVID numbers remain small.

Is this just bureaucrats mistaking each other's contingency plans for reality?

Total COVID-19 hospital occupancy in South Africa is lower today than at the prior peak in summer

Hospitals were never swamped in summer

So either South Africa is just lying about current COVID-19 caseload, or hospitals are full of other patients...

Ok, I'm further told that beds are not a constraint (as is evident in the data)

There's a shortage of high flowing oxygen (not sure if it's the O2 itself or the cannulas)

Anyone know more about this?

And although COVID-19 hospitalisations are approaching their peak from the first wave, deaths are barely elevated

It seems South Africa's COVID-19 patients aren't that ill

Either there's nosocomial spread, laxer admission criteria, or over testing https://twitter.com/espressodrinker/status/1343282255385530376?s=19

Here's South Africa's COVID-19 data from the 28th

964 patients in ICU across 623 hospitals

That's down 20-25% from the figures that started this thread, which were taken from the 22nd

As so often happens, the government is announcing new lockdowns AFTER the peak has passed