S. Africa Covid-19 infections increase five-fold in one week

Emergence of Omicron variant was inevitable, says President Ramaphosa

Johannesburg, Dec. 7: South Africa’s fourth

Covid-19 wave was anticipated and the emergence of the new Omicron variant was inevitable, President Cyril Ramaphosa has said, terming the surge in infections a matter of “great concern”.

The president said the number of daily infections has increased five-fold in the past week, with nearly a quarter of all Covid-19 tests now returning positive. Two weeks ago, only two per cent of tests were positive.

While the surge in infections is of great concern, we should remember that we anticipated it.

Disease modellers in our country have told us that we would likely experience a fourth wave around this time and that it was almost inevitable that new variants of the virus would emerge, Ramaphosa said in his weekly newsletter to the nation on Monday.

“As the country heads into a fourth wave of Covid-19 infections, we are experiencing a rate of infections that we have not seen since the pandemic started.

The Omicron variant that was brought to global attention by South African scientists nearly two weeks ago appears to be dominating new infections in most provinces, he said.

He said scientists in South Africa and around the world are still hard at work to answer critical questions about the new Omicron variant, such as its transmissibility, its progression, whether it causes more severe disease and how effective vaccines will be against it.

Ramaphosa urged the people to get vaccinated and take measures to ensure collective safety without waiting for stricter lockdown regulations. —