The third wave of Covid-19 is expected by June.
Advisor to health minister Zweli Mkhize, Aquina Thulare, said a third resurgence was inevitable despite the vaccine roll-out.
“Other countries in Europe, parts of Asia and the US experience third waves and we anticipate our own.”
Herd immunity would be achieved once about 40 million citizens were vaccinated and this would take about a year.
Professor Salim Abdool Karim, co-chairperson of the Covid-19 ministerial advisory committee, said: “Between May and June we expect to discover new variants, and the greatest fear is that the new variants would mutate to bypass immunisation which would undermine all our efforts and the third wave would be devastating.”