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PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa announced the lifting of some restrictions this week, yet experts have warned of a Deltacrondriven fifth wave in South Africa.

In his national address on Tuesday, the president said the country would remain on alert level 1, but scrapped some restrictions, including the complusory use of wearing masks outdoors and at outdoor gatherings for events.

Meanwhile, the Deltacron variant has been driving up Covid-19 cases worldwide. The variant – a mixture of the Omicron and Delta variants – has also appeared in South Africa, and experts warn of a fifth wave at the end of next month or in May.

In a television interview, medical expert, Dr Vivek Solanki, said the Deltacron variant was expected to be highly contagious but not necessarily fatal.

“It has been spreading and is mostly in France at the moment, Denmark, Germany, Holland, the US, in Asia, has now made an appearance in South Africa and will soon spread to the rest of Africa.”

Solanki also believed South Africa had reached herd immunity against Omicron.

He said the country was more prepared for the next surge of infections, adding that they did not expect mass hospitalisation of Deltacron cases.