By Mduduzi Hlophe

MBABANE: Senator Lizzie Nkosi, the Minister of Health said the third wave of COVID-19 was expected to hit the country within 4-6 weeks.

In a press statement released on Friday afternoon, the Minister said South Africa has identified both the Indian and United Kingdom’s (UK) COVID-19 variants, that country has in the past week noted an increase in infections driven by a steady increase in new cases which has the potential to usher in the third wave of the coronavirus infections.

“From previous waves, Eswatini is between 4-6 weeks behind South Africa in transmission patterns and we are therefore monitoring the situation and our cases closely in the country”, reads the statement.

Reached for comments, Welcome Mdluli, the President of the Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union (SWADNU) warned that the country was not ready for the third wave and a lot of swazis would die as a result.

“This is serious for Swaziland if the Indian variant has been discovered in South Africa, our health system cannot handle this variant which is spreading and killing faster than the previous variants and we have seen how it failed during the first and second waves. Government is failing to even provide medication for flu but we expect to win the fight against the third wave. We are also too relaxed as a country, we behave as if the virus is gone, it was too soon to open large gatherings.If we are serious about containing the Indian variant, we should also consider setting up COVID-19 testing centres near informal crossing points since those areas are super spreaders of the virus”, said the SWADNU President.