He was speaking to Jacaranda's Martin Bester, who asked about the country's preparedness to curb the deadly coronavirus and the rationality of some of the regulations put into place.
Karim said SA will be “over the worst by October and November”.
“I've seen the predictions and the numbers. I am not mathematics whiz but my gut feeling, for a lack of a better description, tells me we will start seeing a peak in about six to eight weeks.
“We will probably plateau by September, and we will be over the worst by October and November. We should be going into the new year with a very low rate of transmission. We can't clear the virus completely,” he said.
Abdool Karim said once SA is in “simmering mode”, when the virus comes back, that's when more activity will likely go back to “normal”.
“Once it's in simmering mode, we will be able to take on more of our normal daily life activities, but of course under the new normal in which protection measures are still implemented," he said.