Prof Abdool Karim provides insight on the high Covid-19 recovery rate in SA
The health ministry has been giving us daily COVID-19 stats and an interesting observation for everyone is our recovery rate, which currently sits at 82%. Darren, Keri, and Sky were joined by both Prof Tulio de Oliviera and Prof Salim Abdool Karim, to provide more insights on the latest coronavirus information and how South Africa is doing.
For over a month, Darren, Keri, and Sky have been joined by bioinformatician and virus hunter Prof Tulio de Oliviera, who has been answering your COVID-19 related questions.
This week however he was joined by his friend and mentor, Prof Salim Abdool Karim - who is South Africa's top epidemiologist, member of science royalty and, as it turns out, a massive fan of East Coast Radio.
READ: Should we be worried about a second wave of COVID-19?
One of the most important questions that was asked had to do with SA's high recovery rate. Prof Karim explained a number of reasons for this positive trend, including good preparation from the SA health department and a young population, as opposed to Italy, for example, which has an older generation.
"We learned very early on from China that a large number of people are asymptomatic and an even smaller proportion needs ventilation... our health system was also not overwhelmed and we never ran out of oxygen," Prof Karim said.
READ: Does hydroxychloroquine really cure Covid-19? Prof Tulio de Oliveira weighs in
Listen below for all the expert advice:
Here's Part 2 of the discussion where Prof de Oliviera deals with a question about alcohol poisoning due to over-sanitising; whether radiation from a full-body X-ray can kill the virus, and if infection lessens as the virus gets passed on.
Professor Tulio de Oliviera also shared this great short video highlighting the work KRISP has performed on COVID-19 since the beginning of the year. The video ends with the minister mentioning how KRISP with Caprisa (Prof Karim's .organisation) worked together to help in diagnostics.
READ: Prof de Oliveira sheds light on increasing Covid19 cases and new Swine Flu
IMAGE CREDIT: Caprisa/Facebook
Catch up with moments from the latest edition of Darren, Keri, and Sky below: