South Africa: Case record after detection of Omicron variant

South Africa today announced nearly 20,000 new cases of Covid-19, a record number since the day the Omicron variant was identified, as well as 36 deaths associated with the disease.

It is not clear at this time how many of the new infections were caused by Omicron, as only a very small percentage of the samples collected are analyzed. Experts, however, believe that this variant is causing the fourth wave of the pandemic in South Africa.

According to the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD), the number of confirmed cases in the country now stands at 3.071 million and more than 90,000 people have died since the beginning of the pandemic.

19,842 new cases were announced today, from 13,147 yesterday.

According to the first indications, Omicron is more contagious than the previous variants, but the symptoms are milder, especially for the vaccinated patients. But the economic consequences for South Africa, which has been restricted by many countries around the world, have been devastating.

One of the largest, private hospital groups, Netcare, reported that patients with the Omicron variant had much milder symptoms than the previous variants. “Almost all of them have mild to moderate flu-like symptoms, such as a stuffy nose or runny nose, a headache, a sore throat,” said Richard Friedland, the group’s general manager. In almost 90% of cases, patients admitted to hospitals after the onset of the fourth wave did not need oxygen.

President Cyril Ramafoza is due to meet with pandemic management experts this week to decide whether to take further restrictive measures. This does not seem likely, however, as hospitals do not have serious problems due to the large number of patients, as was the case in previous waves.

Earlier in the day, the South African Health Service (SAHPRA) approved a third, booster dose of the Pfizer vaccine for all adults and immunocompromised teens ages 12-17.

SOURCE: AMPE