Gauteng continues to record the highest number of daily new Covid-19 cases in the country.

While the province accounted for 59% of all new cases on Wednesday, hospitalisations and deaths still remained low.

On Wednesday, Gauteng recorded 11 703 of the 19 842 new cases in the country. The highest number of new daily cases ever recorded in the province was 16 361 on 3 July.

Also on 3 July, the country recorded its highest number of new daily cases at 26 552. At the time, the dominant variant was Delta. Currently, it is Omicron.

Wednesday also marked the day that the fourth wave nationally overtook the peak of the first wave, which was 13 944 daily new cases.

As the numbers climb, hospitals have been seeing a different picture from the previous waves.

The number of hospitalisations is rising slower than in previous waves, with 374 new hospital admissions on Wednesday. In total, 4 252 people were in public and private hospitals for Covid-19.

Vaccination seems to have also impacted the number of people being admitted. According to the health department, 14 980 211 adults are fully vaccinated, and 680 952 children have received one vaccine dose.

"From our admission data, currently 25% of admitted patients with Covid-19 have been vaccinated against Covid-19, with only 16% of ICU admissions being vaccinated," said Dr Gerrit de Villiers, chief clinical officer of Mediclinic Southern Africa.

According to De Villiers, while more data was still needed to understand the Omicron variant, most people had milder disease than in previous waves.

De Villiers said, "At this time, we are seeing more cases coming through to our emergency centres, but only a few require admission for further care."

Last week, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases said more children were affected by the virus than in previous waves. De Villiers said they saw a similar trend at their hospitals.

"The patient profile for this wave includes younger patients and children under 12 years, which is significant in comparison to the previous three waves. These younger patients are overall not critically ill. We are also noting a number of asymptomatic patients, who were identified through testing on admission for other non-related procedures," De Villiers said.