"COVID-19 is the second worst pandemic in history" - Professor Salim Abdool Karim

Professor Salim Abdool Karim joined Martin Bester on 21 July 2020 to answer a few listener questions.

Professor Karim says, 'Alcohol-related injuries are using exactly the same services as we need for the COVID patients. It makes sense for us to think of short term solutions. We’ll be over the worst by October and November.'

Professor Karim is Director of the Centre for the AIDS Program of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA) and CAPRISA Professor of Global Health at Columbia University. 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Karim was chosen to lead a 45-person Ministerial Advisory Committee.

The committee was intended to guide the South African government's response to the pandemic and included several other medical experts. 

READ: Elma Smit shares her first flight experience during lockdown

Professor Karim joined Breakfast with Martin Bester on 9 July to discuss the coronavirus statistics in South Africa. 

Professor Karim said, ‘We have a better understanding of the virus now than we did in March. One-half of the virus carriers will be asymptomatic and the other will need hospitalisation and that is the problem.’

South Africa’s economic hub, Gauteng, has officially overtaken the Western Cape with the most coronavirus cases in the country. 

READ: How to wash your cloth facemask

The total number of Covid-19 related deaths now stands at 3 602 on 9 July 2020.